Andy Murray kicked off his ATP World Tour Finals campaign in ideal fashion with a 6-2 6-4 win over Robin Soderling in London on Sunday.
The 23-year-old Scot broke Soderling in the third game of the first set, before striking again in the seventh game and eventually taking the first set after executing a drop shot to perfection on set point.
Games went on serve early in the second set before Murray broke in the seventh game when Soderling double faulted.
Soderling had just one break-point opportunity in the 79-minute affair but it was quickly whipped away from him by one of Murray's 10 aces.
The big-serving Swede was unusually flat at the O2 Arena, as he significantly fell behind in the race to qualify for the semi-finals from Group B, with fixtures against Roger Federer and David Ferrer to come.
As for the Scot, it was a perfect start before his 'home' fans as he attempts to better his effort at last year's season-ending finals when he was ousted at the group stage despite winning two of his three round robin games.