Impressive Roger Federer overcomes Andy Murray in London
Roger Federer moved to the top of Group B at the ATP World Tour Finals on Tuesday 23 November, turning in a grand performance to beat Andy Murray.
The crowd at London's O2 Arena backed both players at their entry, but a mixture of awe and disappointment spread through the stadium when home favourite Murray was undone surprisingly easily by the Swiss, who won 6–4 6–2.
"I knew the difficulty of playing Andy," Federer said after beating the world number five. "I had my hands full today so I'm surprised how clean the score was. He didn't have his best match."
Murray has defeated Federer twice this season, but the Swiss' strong performance on Tuesday will have reminded the British top seed why Federer has won both of their Grand Slam meetings to date.
The world number two held his first service game more comfortably than Murray before a convincing smash and two unforced errors by the Scot earned Federer his first break of the match.
A change of shirts from white to black did not help Murray break back, but the Scot only gifted Federer one point as he proceeded to hold his serve and limit the gap to only one game.
Federer, who began advancing regularly on his service to apply the pressure on the Shanghai Open champion, held his games in the first set without trouble.
Meanwhile Murray relinquished only one point in two service games as the two players matched themselves before Federer found himself serving for the set at 5–4.
The recent Swiss Open champion, resurgent since his semi-final exit at the US Open in September, needed only one game to claim the set, landing two forehand winners before Murray skewed his forehand wide on the set point.
Federer breaks immediately in the second set
The second set then began in the worst possible fashion for Murray, who failed to win a game point before Federer went ahead in the deuce and hit a winner off the top of the net.
The Swiss then hit his fourth ace of the day to hold before cruising through Murray's next service game to earn his third break and take full control of the match.
And Federer could have added a devastating fourth break in the fifth game, but Murray managed to stave off the Swiss to bring the score to 4–1.
By then it was apparent that Federer would earn his second consecutive win over Murray at the ATP Finals, and the world number two remained steady on his serve to clinch the second set 6–2.
On Friday 26 November, Murray is set to play Spain's David Ferrer next as Federer takes on Robin Soderling of Sweden in the final Group B round robin matches.
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