Andy Murray bows out to David Ferrer in Group A opener – ATP World Tour Finals 2011
Local crowd at the glorious O2 Arena in London was in for a shocking outcome in the opening Group A matchup of the Barclays ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Finals, as the third seed home favourite, Andy Murray, crashed out of the contest at the hands of the world number five, David Ferrer of Spain, on Monday night.
The third ranked Briton battled hard for two hours but he was no match to the sheer brilliance of Ferrer, who wrapped up victory in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5, to take off the season ending grand finale in style. The Spaniard finally broke the four-match winning streak of Murray on Monday, improving 4-5 in the head-to-head series against the third seed.
It was Ferrer’s 57th victory of the running season, giving him a top spot in Group A of the tournament draw. The belligerent Murray stepped on the hard court of O2 Arena as the hot favourite for the contest but he failed to live up to the expectations of his home crowd and submitted in the second set to let his opponent fly away with victory. Ferrer regarded his win over Murray as a huge confidence booster and hopes to replicate the similar performance against other superior ranked players in the draw as well.
“I’m very happy,” said Ferrer, “I beat Andy, in London, in his home. It is not easy. I played very consistent all the match. Maybe the first set I played better than the second, [because] in the second [set], sometimes I was a little bit nervous. I think it was important to start winning the match and if you win in two sets it is better with the group [standings]. You know you need to win one more match, because [it] is very difficult to reach the semi-finals winning only one match.”
The fifth seed Spaniard belted 19 winners and converted half of his 10 break opportunities to take the better of the world number three. Ferrer remained aggressive throughout the contest, whereas Murray’s errant stroke play on the most crucial moments of the game let him down in the end.
Ferrer will take on the world number one, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, in his next Round Robin clash on Wednesday. The top seed went through a rough ride before overcoming the seventh ranked Czech opponent, Tomas Berdych in his opening matchup at the ATP World Tour Finals.
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