LONDON, (Reuters) – Striding on to court at the O2 Arena yesterday Andy Murray could be forgiven for thinking he had stumbled into a rock concert and he responded with a virtuoso display to kickstart the ATP World Tour finals.
Accompanied by spectacular lighting, thumping music and 17,500 fans crammed into the cavernous dome alongside the River Thames, Murray opened Group B with a 6-2 6-4 victory over hard-hitting Swede Robin Soderling.
After a mixed year for the Scot, who arrived on court wearing a diamond-patterned black shirt not unlike those sported by Ivan Lendl in the 1980s, he produced one of his best displays to take Soderling apart.
Murray, who slipped below Soderling to fifth in the world rankings this week after the Swede won the Paris Masters, broke serve in the third and seventh games to take the opening set and wrapped up victory in 80 minutes despite being made to work much harder in the second set.
Soderling had just one chance to break the Murray serve, in the sixth game of the second set, and was promptly aced by the Scot who mixed incredible defence with rasping passing shots and bamboozling drop shots, one of which he executed to perfection to win a one-sided opening set.
Murray pocketed $120,000 for his round-robin victory and four more performances of similar quality could see him cashing in the $1.6-million prize for an undefeated champion, although Roger Federer, also in Group B, could have something to say about that as he bids to win the title for a fifth time.
