November 23rd, 2009 by Andrew Thomson

Britain’s Andy Murray has won the opening match at the ATP World Tour Finals in London’s O2 Arena, against US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro.

The 22-year-old from Dunblane took the lead in the round-robin phase in Group A, winning 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in front of over 17,000 spectators.  The ATP World Tour Finals, an end-of-season tournament for the top eight seeded players, are being held in London for the first time, in a residency at the O2 Arena which will last until at least 2012.

The Clash’s London Calling came tearing out of the loudspeakers as the players walked on, and there was a collective sharp intake of breath when Del Potro asked for a timeout only three games into the match – which thankfully turned out to be nothing worse than to stem a troublesome nosebleed.  Del Potro recovered to test properly Murray’s defensive skills, although the Scot’s broad range of defensive and attacking play, not to mention his cool demeanour, meant Murray took the first set 6-3.

Del Potro bounced back in the second, finally finding his groove to take an early break in a set which saw four breaks of serve in total, the last going to Del Potro with one of his massive forehands to take the second set 6-3.

But Murray’s level-headedness remained, as he broke Del Potro in the second game of the third set and rattled off his service game to love.  At 3-0 up Murray applied full throttle and broke again to win the third and final set convincingly at 6-2.

Murray will play Roger Federer next, on Tuesday November 24th.  Federer beat Fernando Verdasco in first evening session at the O2 on Sunday night, struggling to find his feet at first to lose the first set 4-6, before recovering to win the second and third, for the match, at 7-5, 6-1.  Before that match Murray said he was already looking forward to taking on the winner, regardless of who it was, and it’s possible Federer’s faltering in the first third of his match will give Murray enough of a toehold to control the match as he did on Sunday afternoon.

Tickets to that match, and all other group and knockout matches up to and including the singles and doubles finals, are available to compare and buy now at tixdaq.com.