Andy Murray makes short work of Soderling at ATP World Tour

Striding on to court at the O2 Arena on Sunday Andy Murray could be forgiven for thinking he had stumbled into a rock concert and he responded with a virtuoso display to kickstart the ATP World Tour finals.

Accompanied by spectacular lighting, thumping music and 17,500 fans crammed into the cavernous dome alongside the River Thames, Murray opened Group B with a 6-2 6-4 victory over hard-hitting Swede Robin Soderling.

After a mixed year for the Scot, who arrived on court wearing a diamond-patterned black shirt not unlike those sported by Ivan Lendl in the 1980s, he produced one of his best displays to take Soderling apart.

Murray, who slipped below Soderling to fifth in the world rankings this week after the Swede won the Paris Masters, broke serve in the third and seventh games to take the opening set and wrapped up victory in 80 minutes despite being made to work much harder in the second set.   

Soderling had just one chance to break the Murray serve, in the sixth game of the second set, and was promptly aced by the Scot who mixed incredible defence with rasping passing shots and bamboozling drop shots, one of which he executed to perfection to win a one-sided opening set.           

Murray pocketed $120,000 for his round-robin victory and four more performances of similar quality could see him cashing in the $1.6-million prize for an undefeated champion, although Roger Federer, also in Group B, could have something to say about that as he bids to win the title for a fifth time.  

"I think tactically it was a great match," Murray told reporters. "I think I played very smart tennis today.

"It was getting tough in the second set, a lot of long rallies and I was on the defensive quite a lot but I stuck to my tactics well and managed to come through."         

Slow Surface
French Open runner-up Soderling thrived on the lightning fast courts in Paris last week when he claimed his first Masters title, but the slower, blue surface in London appeared to suit Murray's counter-punching style much better.  

"I think it's slow. But it's low bouncing. I was on the defensive quite a lot but the slice stays low so you can keep yourself in the rallies. It can be tough to hit winners."  

A straight sets victory means Murray, who missed out on a semi-final berth here last year by a solitary game despite winning two of his three matches, is well-placed to emerge from a group which also contains Spain's David Ferrer.

Murray revels in the noisy atmosphere at the US Open but even he admitted he was a little taken aback by his entrance on Sunday as The Clash classic London's Calling boomed out around an arena more used to staging the world's biggest rock stars.   

"The atmosphere here is obviously different," Murray said when asked to compare the O2 with Wimbledon's Centre Court.        

"It's more sort of like a concert with music at the change of ends, having the big screen showing replays of the points. 

"It was so loud and they were firing (lights) on the court today. I didn't know what was going on at first."   

Murray will hope he can deliver another classic solo when he takes on Federer later in the week. The Scot trounced world number two Federer in Shanghai recently but is not getting carried away. 

"It's obviously good to win against him but every match is completely different," he said. "I played great today but I could play horrible on Tuesday."