LONDON — Andy Murray silenced the critics who claimed he was distracted by dreams of Davis Cup glory as the Scot opened his ATP Tour Finals campaign with a gritty 6-4, 6-4 win over David Ferrer Monday.
Former Wimbledon champion Murray has made it clear his main priority in the closing weeks of the season is Great Britain's attempt to win the Davis Cup for the first time since 1936 in its first final since 1978.
Britain faces Belgium in the final on clay in Ghent next week and Murray had initially suggested he might pull out of the Tour Finals to fine-tune his preparations for the Davis Cup.
After learning of potential sanctions from the ATP if he withdrew, Murray settled for spending most of last week practicing his clay-court game across London at Queen's Club before arriving at the O2 Friday.
It was hardly ideal preparation and inevitably Murray's commitment against Ferrer was under close scrutiny from cynics who doubted whether the world No. 2 really wanted to risk injury with the Davis Cup just around the corner.
But Murray assuaged those worries with a typically whole-hearted 90-minute display to see off Ferrer in his opening group match in the prestigious season-ending event.
While Murray was unable to win a Grand Slam this year, his impressive consistency over the last 11 months has brought him to the verge of finishing second in the year-end world rankings for the first time.
The 28-year-old will now be guaranteed that milestone if he wins one of his remaining two group matches against Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka.
The two-time Grand Slam champion looked well on course to maintain his mastery of Ferrer when a volley that dipped just inside the baseline brought up two set points in the 10th game.
A Ferrer double fault gift wrapped the set for Murray and the Scot should have felt confident of finishing the job having won all 59 of his matches after taking the first set this year.
Murray briefly lost his focus and surrendered a break in the opening game of the second set.
But he broke back for 3-3 at the end of a 22-shot rally in which even the famously obdurate Ferrer was eventually worn down.
That proved the decisive moment as Murray harried Ferrer into more errors in the 10th game, earning two match points and converting the first with an emphatic smash.
On Sunday, Roger Federer remained unrivalled as he demonstrated again when dismantling Tomas Berdych.
Federer will provide Novak Djokovic with a far sterner test when they meet in the "Stan Smith" Group Tuesday, if his level for most of a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Berdych was anything to go by.
The 34-year-old, cheered on by a sizeable army of Swiss fans in various sorts of red and white attire, made a mess of his opening service game, falling 0-2 behind after serving two consecutive double-faults to gift Berdych a break.
But he responded with a break to love and then from 3-4 down in the opening set he produced a dazzling show reel of his favorite tricks to win seven games in a row — throwing in a couple of his trademark half-volleyed returns for good measure. — Agencies
