Andy Murray posted his first victory to stay in contention at the elite ATP World Tour Finals tournament on Tuesday. Federer, who had won earlier in the day, would have progressed if Milos Raonic had defeated the home favorite, but the former Wimbledon champion completed a 6-3, 7-5 win over the Canadian newcomer in a dour match that produced very little excitement.
Murray, who had lost his two previous encounters with the big-serving Raonic, ensured some suspense for the last day of matches in his group, with all four players retaining a chance to progress. "It's a nice match on Thursday to look forward to, it'll be a great atmosphere again," said Murray about his final round-robin match against Federer. "It's always a pleasure to play against Roger. He's one of the greatest players that has ever played so to get the opportunity to play him in an atmosphere like this is excellent."
After losing his first match to Nishikori in straight sets, the Scot said he found inspiration in his coach's experience to bounce back. "Amelie was saying one of the times she made the final of the year-end championships, she lost her first match 6-2, 6-2 against (Nadia) Petrova. Obviously it wasn't feeling great." said Murray, who hired Amelie Mauresmo after splitting with Ivan lendl. "Then she went on to reach the final. It's nice to have these sorts of discussions, having someone that's experienced having been in a tough situation after the first match."
Against Murray, Raonic struggled with his favorite weapon early on, only averaging 37 percent of first services in the first set.
The Scot broke in the sixth game after the Wimbledon semifinalist shanked an easy smash before hitting two more unforced errors. But Murray could not build on the momentum after opening a 2-1 lead in the second set when Raonic dropped his serve after double-faulting to gift him a break point.
Berdych bounces back
Tomas Berdych recovered from his poor start and stayed in contention for a spot in the semifinals by beating Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-1. Following a straight-set loss to Stan Wawrinka, the Czech looked better against Cilic, hitting with accuracy and serving well on big points. Berdych broke twice in the first set as the US Open champion — who is now 0-2 in Group A — struggled with his first serve. The hard-hitting Croatian produced some good shots but was inconsistent, failing to convert any of his six break points.
In the second set, Cilic held to level at 1-1 before Berdych won five consecutive games.