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LONDON: Andy Murray kicked off his bid to win the ATP World Tour Finals on home turf with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory over US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro in London on Sunday.
Murray gave the near-capacity crowd of 17,500 at the 02 Arena exactly what they wanted as the Scot produced a gutsy display to hold off world number five del Potro in the end-of-year event's opening match.
Although Murray is still looking to win his first grand slam, his record this year suggests it is only a matter of time before he ends that frustrating wait.
The 22-year-old world number four has won six ATP Tour titles in the last 12 months, more than any of his rivals, and the battling nature of this Group A success against del Potro showed his game is maturing nicely.
While tennis in Britain is normally associated with the refined surroundings of Wimbledon in genteel south-west London, the Tour Finals, which are being held in the English capital for the first time, are packaged in a much more modern manner.
The rock music and fanfare that greeted the arrival of the players onto court quickly made it clear that this event would be a total contrast to the All England Club's sedate atmosphere.
But Murray has always thrived on the noise generated by indoor matches and there were few signs of rust from the wrist injury that sidelined him for seven weeks recently.
Murray produced a blistering forehand down the line to break del Potro in the second game.
Del Potro took an injury time-out for treatment on his face at the end of the third game but still looked out of sorts as Murray moved into a 5-0 lead.
Faced with a first set whitewash, del Potro finally raised his game and broke Murray to reduce the gap to 5-2 before the Scot finally converted his seventh set point.
It was del Potro, 21, who cut the more imposing figure in the second set as he unleashed some crushing forehands to race into a 3-0 lead.
The towering Argentine has risen to fifth in the world rankings after a breakthrough year capped by his shock five-set victory over Roger Federer in September's US Open final and he briefly showed the form that so impressed in New York as he broke again to level the match at one set all.
But Murray, who reached the semi-finals of this event in Shanghai last year, has too much variation to his game to be bludgeoned out of his rhythm for long and he snatched a crucial early break in the second game of the final set.
That was enough to shatter del Potro's resistance and Murray held serve to close out the match.
World number one Roger Federer faces Spain's Fernando Verdasco in the other Group A fixture later on Sunday.
The four players in each group play each other once, with the top two players from each group progressing to the semi-finals. - AFP/de
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