IT was nowhere near as easy as Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic’s opening wins in the Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals, but Andy Murray eventually emerged a comfortable winner over David Ferrer of Spain at the 02 Arena yesterday.
A 6-4, 6-4 scoreline hints at the fact that Ferrer was able to push Murray some but not all of the way. “It was a tough match with a lot of long rallies,” said Murray. “He fought hard right to the end and made it extremely difficult.
“He didn’t serve as well as he can and I played a bit better at the end of both sets, and that got me the win.”
A very apt summary of the match by the 28-year-old from Dunblane – he really did go up the gears at the end of each set and Ferrer had no answer.
The match opened very brightly, with both players going for their shots.
At first Murray found the world No 7 a handful. Although one early Murray shot was breathtaking – a forehand lob on the run from the back of the court to win the third game coming right out of his top drawer. Murray then had Ferrer rocking in the fourth game but the Spaniard bravely saw off a break point, closing with a superb volley.
Games went with serve, including the eighth in which Ferrer lost his cool over a wrong call – the review showing the ball was well in.
Murray then went on to lose two points on Hawkeye reviews and lost the game as Ferrer survived three break points.
As he has now learned to do, Murray upped the ante at precisely the right time. He raced through the ninth game and put pressure on Ferrer’s dodgy serve to earn two break points, needing only one to win the first set 6-4.
Murray has not lost a match all year after winning the first set and so it proved again yesterday. You would not have thought it, however, given his performance in the opening game of the second set.
A complete loss of concentration saw the Spaniard break to love, and he went on to take the second game thanks mainly to a stunning cross-court winner at deuce.
Murray regained his concentration and held serve, but Ferrer did the same and suddenly he was 3-2 up on Murray and serving. That was when Murray’s power game kicked in and he promptly broke back with a succession of mighty blows.
Services held in turn saw Murray go 5-4 ahead and again he punished the Spaniard’s poor serving and loose play to earn two match points. Ferrer managed to return one smash but a second save gave Murray an easy overhead to win the match.
The key figures in the match were that Ferrer only got 49 per cent of his first serves in and had eight double faults, while Murray’s all-round game looked very secure.
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