The British number one was on court just over an hour, as he recorded a 6-4 6-4 victory over the world number 7.
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| Andy Murray in action (Picture from i.guim.co.uk/img) |
The other match in the group between Rafael Nadal and Stanislas Wawrinka will take place at 8:00pm tonight.
There were doubts whether the Brit, who is now ranked 2nd in the world, would play in London this year due to Great Britain’s involvement in the Davis Cup final.
That tie will take place in a fortnight’s time on a clay court in Belgium and Murray has admitted that he has been training on the surface prior to this week.
For the time being he will have to acclimatise to the indoor court at the 02 arena; in the opening game of the match it looked like it may take him a while to adapt as Ferrer created the first break point opportunity.
However the early uncertainty was quickly extinguished as Murray held serve and began the hunt for a break of his own.
Leading 4-3 in the first set, Murray went on the attack but the tenacious Ferrer fended off three break points to level the match at four games all.
Even so the Spaniard’s first serve percentage was dwindling below 50%, and Murray pounced two games later to claim a set advantage.
At the start of second set Murray’s concentration wavered and his serve was broken for the first time in the 11th game of the contest.
The Brit had beaten Ferrer in straight sets at the semi-final stage in Paris a couple of weeks ago, and the Spaniard’s serve continued let him down here.
Murray showed great variety by using an array of drop shots and coming into the net on numerous occasions, as he began to turn the set around.
By the end of the match Ferrer had served eight double faults, and after moving 5-4 ahead Murray broke his opponent for the 3rd time to seal the victory.
Earlier in the day Jean Julien Rojer and Horia Tecău beat Nenad Zimonjic and Marcin Matkowski 6-2 6-4 in the doubles competition.
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