Andy Murray Has Winning Start In London
22 November 2009
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Andy Murray made the perfect start to his ATP World Tour Final campaign this afternoon as he saw off the challenge of the U.S. Open Champion Juan Martin Del Potro at the O2.
17,000 people packed into the London arena for the opening afternoon of the round robin stages of the event which saw the world number four and five go head to head.
And Murray made the perfect start as he broke Del Potro in his opening service game to take a 3-0 lead. It was after this third game that the Argentine called for the trainer and took a medical time-out for a nose bleed.
Since winning the U.S. Open against Roger Federer back in September Del Potro has been hampered by an abdominal strain, an injury which forced him to bow out of his Paris masters quarterfinal earlier this month.
And the big man looked out of sorts in the first set as Murray took the first games as Del Potro struggled with his serve.
But a comeback was on the cards as Del Potro broke the Scot as he served for the match before pulling the opening set back to 5-3.
But it was to be too much too late as Murray finally wrapped up the opener to take a lone set to love lead.
The momentum swung the way of the U.S. Open champion in the second set as he opened up a 3-0 love lead and there appeared to be no sign of the abdominal injury that has hampered him since September.
Serving well and hitting freely Murray had few answers and there was some great play by both men. But it was Murray who was struggling on serve and despite trying to get back on level terms Del Potro took the set 6-3 to take the match all the way.
And while it appeared that the momentum was going all the way of the Argentine it was Murray who struck first in the deciding set.
With the London crowd backing the Scot the Del Potro resistance began to fade as Murray once again found the serving power that had helped him win the opening set.
With Del Potro winning just two games Murray wrapped up the match 6-3 3-6 6-2 to a standing ovation from the crowd.
Tonight’s match sees the other two players from group A, Roger Federer and Fernando Verdasco take to the court.
Murray has a winning record against both Federer and Verdasco and is the early favourite to progress to the semi-finals from group A.
Group B, which is headed by world number two Rafael Nadal, get their campaigns under way tomorrow with Nadal taking on Robin Soderling in the first of the singles matches.
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