Roger Federer has won his opening match at the ATP World Tour Finals in London against Fernando Verdasco, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Despite losing the first set after a shaky start in which he was broken to love in the very first game of the match, the world No.1 recovered to join Andy Murray with a win in the first round of matches in Group A.
The second set proved to be a close affair with Verdasco sensing victory after moving 0-30 clear at 5-5 before Federer held serve and proceeded to completely change the momentum of the game.
Breaking his opponent for the first time, Federer leveled the match at one set all and continued his rejuvenated form into the deciding set. The No.1 seed broke his opponent decisively in the second and fourth game before moving into an impressive 5-0 lead and sealing the match with a love service game.
"I felt at the beginning of the second set I was starting to return better," said Federer. "At the beginning the first game was so quick, four points, I was running after the score because of that and the whole first set I was struggling to put returns into play."
"The crowds are great, the lighting is unique - you do see the crowd but the focus is very much on us. This is a bit unusual but we had the chance to practice in these surroundings and I thought it was very nice to play in. It's not like Wimbledon but it's still special."
In the other tie on the opening day of Group A, No.3 seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles made a winning start to their campaign in London, defeating debutants Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak 6-3, 6-3.
The pair converted four of seven break points in a dominant display that lasted a little over seventy minutes.
The opening matches in Group B take place today with Rafael Nadal taking on Robin Soderling and defending champion Novak Djokovic against Nikolay Davydenko in a repeat of last year's final.
In the doubles event, Bob/ Mike Bryan, Lukas Dlouhy / Leander Paes, Lukasz Kubot / Oliver Marach and Max Mirnyi / Andy Ram all get their ATP World Tour Final campaigns underway.
Elsewhere on men's tour, the AEGON British Tour event in Nottingham reached its climax with Mark Hilton defeating Simon Roberts 6-2, 6-0 in the final. Hilton defeated British Boys No.2 Ahmed El Menshawy in the quarter-finals and won all of his matches within two sets during the week.
Roberts reached the final after recovering from a set down to defeat David Brewer 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Brewer entered the tournament after securing the AEGON British Tour title in Hull last weekend.
In the women’s event in Nottingham, British No.5 Naomi Cavaday defeated Samantha Vickers 6-2, 6-2 to take the title. Vickers had reached the final after winning 7-6(4), 6-1 over the winner of last week’s women’s event in Hull, Yasmin Clarke.
Cavaday, who was seeded No.1 in the event, eased past Holly Richards 6-2, 6-1 en route to the final after securing straight sets victories over her opponents throughout the week.
Jamie Delgado reached the semi-finals of the $50k ATP Challenger in Champaign (USA) before losing 5-7, 4-6 with partner John Paul Fruttero (USA) to Americans Dann and Brian Battistone.
In the semi-final of the $15k event in Roznov pod Radhostem (CZE) Josh Goodall lost 2-6, 6-7(4) to No.3 seed Jan Mertl (CZE) in the semi-finals.
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