“He’s got a big serve, long reach and goes for huge shots. You just have to try and get through it. Tactically I’ve always been fairly good so I found a way through today.” London’s spaceship-like O2 Arena, formerly known as the Millennium Dome, is more used to welcoming the world’s greatest pop stars, and there was plenty of razzamatazz and glitz as the $5 million ATP season climax got under way with hardly an empty seat in the house. Led Zeppelin blared out of the sound system and spotlights punctured the darkened arena as the two gladiators walked out to begin the sixth instalment of what many predict will become one of the fiercest rivalries in men’s tennis. Del Potro, a year younger than the 22-year-old Murray but already one-up on the Scot in the grand slam stakes after his stunning victory over Federer in the Flushing Meadows final in September, carved out a break point in a messy opening game but then fell away alarmingly. The forehand that battered Federer into submission in New York failed to ignite and a mid-set nosebleed hardly helped his cause as Murray reached set point at 5-0 after 25 minutes.
BIG NOSE
“I have a big nose, that’s the problem,” a glum Del Potro told reporters although some of his baseline play from there on should give him confidence that he can still progress.
Things began to change as Del Potro found his timing to claw it back to 3-5 and, although Murray finally clinched the opener on his seventh set point, the tide had turned in the giant South American’s favour.
Del Potro broke serve twice in the second set and after softening up Murray with some punishing inside out forehands that Murray could merely slice back defensively he levelled the match with an unstoppable crosscourt effort.
As quickly as it had sparked into life, however, Del Potro’s challenge withered and world number four Murray won the third set surprisingly comfortably after breaking in the second game.
“I could win two matches and still not get to the semi-finals,” said Murray. “But winning the first one obviously helps a lot.”
Group B action opens on Monday when Rafael Nadal, who can still beat Federer to the year-end world number one ranking, faces Swede Robin Soderling and Novak Djokovic takes on Nikolay Davydenko.
