LONDON -- Andy Murray will take encouragement from the way he battled past David Ferrer but will also know he has plenty of work to do to throw his hat into the ring at these World Tour Finals.
It was an inconsistent showing but the Scot managed to get the job done against a typically dogged and tenacious Ferrer, winning 6-4, 6-4 in an hour and a half to kick off his campaign at the O2 Arena.
He showed understandable signs of ring rust given his lack of practice time on these courts, having trained on clay for most of the build-up to this tournament with next week's Davis Cup final against Belgium looming.
Still, one more victory this week and Murray will wrap up the year-end No.2 spot, his highest ever finish to a season and one he has targeted ahead of the Australian Open, regardless of what Roger Federer does in London. But Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka, the other two men in this group, will be poised to pounce on any signs of weakness from Murray.
"It was a tough match with a lot of long rallies and he fought right the way through to the end as always," Murray said on court after the match. "He made it extremely difficult for me, but he didn't serve as well as he can which helped me. I played a little bit more solid at the end of both sets which got me the win.
"[The court] is pretty fair for all of the players. There were a variety of points, a lot of points at the net. It was a good variety of tennis out here. It would be nice if more of the courts throughout the year were like that. They're often extremely slow, with everyone playing from the baseline these days.
"You have to try and win every match [at the tournament], every game counts. A few years ago I was knocked out in the group stages by one game or something. You need to win in two sets if you get opportunity, which was good for me today. But I can still go out. Just because I won my first match, there are no guarantees. It will be tough against Rafa and Stan."
It's now 69 wins for Murray in 2015, his most ever in a single season. Only Djokovic has more in the current campaign (79), but Murray will know he still has a long way to go to challenge the world No.1.
Murray, understandably, struggled with the flight of the ball on Monday afternoon, particularly in the opening exchanges, and Ferrer -- runner-up to Federer in Shanghai in 2007 -- is not the kind of opponent you want to run into on an off-day.
A closely-fought opening set went on serve until Murray had break points for 5-3. He was shut down by Ferrer, only to strike at the next opportunity to take the first set after a double fault from the Spaniard.
Winning the opener was always likely to be crucial -- the two men had won 102 matches and lost none between them this season after taking the first set. Murray himself has now not lost in 69 matches when taking the first set, his last defeat coming against, of all people, Ferrer in Shanghai in 2014.
Murray made his job harder when he lost his concentration and was broken to love in the opening game of the second set, but broke back for 3-3. The Scot then brought up two match points at 5-4 and took the first of them to seal the win.