Djokovic races to opening victory at the ATP World Tour Finals

Sport360 staff 21:28 15/11/2015
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  • Djokovic has registered 23 consecutive victories.

    Kei Nishikori was the latest victim of the runaway train that is Novak Djokovic as the world number one romped to victory in his opening match at the ATP World Tour Finals in London.
    The statistics of Djokovic’s season get more impressive by the day and he needed only 65 minutes to defeat Nishikori 6-1 6-1 and register a 23rd consecutive win.

    The O2 Arena turned red, white and blue prior to the match as a minute’s silence was observed for the victims of Friday’s attacks in Paris.

    Once attention turned back to matters on court, Djokovic, who has lost just one set since the US Open final, wasted no time in stamping his authority, establishing a 3-0 lead.

    The World No.1 consoles Nishikori after his comfortable victory.

    Nishikori battled hard to get on the board in the fourth game but that was as good as it got as Djokovic, his game and his movement razor sharp, reeled off the next three.

    The Serbian is even more dominant indoors than elsewhere. He is unbeaten since 2012 and is bidding to become the first player to win four successive World Tour Finals titles.

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, Nishikori looked at a loss as to how to trouble Djokovic and he made the worst possible start to the second set, dropping serve for a third time.

    Djokovic was playing with swagger and a nonchalant backhand volley gave him the most comfortable of opening wins.

    Earlier, Jamie Murray and Australian John Peers marked their debut at the tournament with victory over Australian Open champions Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli in a match that, unlike the singles, was a real contest.

    Murray and Peers are seeded fourth in the doubles after a superb season that saw them reach the final at both Wimbledon and the US Open.

    And they were in fine form in the opening match of the end-of-season tournament in London, holding their nerve to win the deciding match tie-break and clinch a 7-6 (7/5) 3-6 11-9 victory.

    Murray said: “It was cool. It was a great match, a really exciting match. I think both teams played well. There was a lot of exciting points. It came down to a couple of points right at the end.

    “We’re really happy to win and really excited to move on in the tournament.”

    Murray is only the second British player to qualify for the doubles after Jonny Marray since the event moved to the O2 in 2009 and a good crowd was in place to watch the Scot.

    Murray and Peers looked confident from the off and deservedly took the opening set on a tie-break after seeing a set point go begging in the 10th game.

    They recovered from 4-1 down in the second to 4-3 but a mistake from Murray gave the Italians another break and they levelled the match.

    That left proceedings to be decided by a match tie-break, with the winner the first to 10 points, or by two clear points thereafter.

    It was nip and tuck all the way through but a crucial mini-break for 10-9 left Murray serving for victory, and a smash from Peers proved too hot for the Italians to handle.

    The victory gives Murray and Peers, who are playing their final tournament together before parting ways, a great chance of reaching the semi-finals.

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