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 Asian trailblazer Nishikori walked on court accompanied by the
usual O2 Arena music and lights before dismantling home favorite
Murray with some dazzling special effects of his own.
Canada's Raonic, like Nishikori the first man from his country to
qualify for the ATP's year-ending showpiece, began horribly before
improving as he lost 6-1 7-6(0) to six-times former champion
Federer.
Federer and Nishikori will now meet in Group B on Tuesday when
Murray and Raonic will be battling to keep themselves afloat in the
round-robin event.
The 24-year-old Nishikori admitted he tried not to look up into the
soaring stands at the 17,000 sell-out London venue in a nervous
start against Murray, who qualified for the seventh year in
succession after three-title burst since September.
Once the U.S. Open runner-up settled, however, he led former
Wimbledon champion Murray a merry dance.
Even a late Murray fightback, when the tenacious Scot battled back
from 4-1 down in the second set to 4-4, failed to knock Nishikori
off track as he closed out an impressive victory on the electric
blue indoor court.
"The stadium is huge. I tried not to look up too much because there
was too many people on the top," Nishikori, the world number five,
told reporters.
"Maybe when I walked into the stadium, I was nervous, but at the
same time I was really excited to play with this crowd.
"I was really happy that I played good tennis on this situation."
TAME FASHION
Murray broke serve to lead 3-2 in the opening set but immediately
dropped his own to love and conceded the opening set in tame fashion
when an attempted dropshot nestled into the net.
With plenty of Japanese flags fluttering in the darkened stands,
Nishikori quickly forged ahead at the start of the second set,
catching Murray well behind the baseline with a cute drop shot to
break on the way to a 3-0 lead.
Murray was in danger of being overwhelmed but he scrapped and
scraped his way through his next service game when Nishikori failed
to take three chances for a 4-0 lead, one of which, a missed
forehand down the line, was a glaring error.
It looked as though it might prove costly for the 24-year-old as
Murray clawed back to 4-4 with the help of some Nishikori errors but
just when the momentum appeared to have shifted, the Japanese
gathered himself for another attack.
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He sealed a first victory over Murray in four attempts on his first
match point when the Briton wafted a backhand long.
"I didn't serve well enough and he was able to dictate a lot of
points, especially behind my second serve," Murray said.
"You need to try to forget about today, work on some things
tomorrow, and hopefully play better on Tuesday."
Federer needed only 25 minutes to take the opening set against
Raonic.
Despite the Canadian's first serve thundering toward him regularly
at over 140mph, the Swiss was unflustered as he twice pocketed
Raonic's service games.
Raonic saved a break point at 1-1 in the second set and that escape
appeared to fuel him with more belief as his serve and his forehand
began to knock Federer out of his comfort zone.
In three consecutive Federer service games the 23-year-old had break
points, the last of them being a set point at 6-5.
Federer saved that with a piercing first serve and, crisis averted,
rattled through the tiebreaker in quick time.
"The second set was much tougher, it was an important set to win,"
Federer said on court. "I don't think he played a great breaker but
it was a great one to win.
"But we have a tough group so it's always going to be hard advancing
but it brings me a step closer."
(Editing by Ed Osmond and Steve Tongue)
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