Andy Murray made a perfect start to his bid to win the ATP World Tour Finals for the first time with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Sweden's Robin Soderling on Sunday. Murray was in fine form as he opened the annual end-of-season event, featuring the world's top eight players, with the kind of dominant display that hinted the British number one is capable of providing a home winner for the fans at London's O2 Arena.
Soderling, seeded fourth, arrived in the English capital full of confidence after an impressive year, but fifth seed Murray was at his imperious best as he dismissed him in one hour and 20 minutes.
Murray had the perfect motivation against Soderling as the Swede had replaced him as the world number four after winning the Paris Masters last weekend.
Murray's slump out of the top four after almost two years in that elite group was the result of an inconsistent season which raised fresh doubts about his ability to end his long wait to win a Grand Slam. The 23-year-old, who lost the Australian Open final to Roger Federer in January, arrived at the Finals in search of a morale-boosting end to the season and made the ideal start to his Group B campaign.
Murray has always thrived on the support he gets a short distance across south London at Wimbledon and playing in front of 20,000 partisan fans was clearly just the tonic he needed.
A brilliant cross-court winner on the run opened up a 30-0 lead in Soderling's second service game and allowed Murray the chance to earn three break points.
He converted the third with a fine return that flashed back past the Swede for the first break.