IF Andy Murray has one eye on next weekend's Davis Cup final, he didn't show it as he got his ATP World Tour finals campaign under way with this 6-4, 6-4 victory against David Ferrer at the o2 arena.

The elder Murray sibling had kicked off his campaign with a win alongside doubles partner John Peers and it didn't take long to get the World No 2's competitive juices flowing either. The victory against the No 7 seed was done in 90 minutes and saw the Scot take an early lead in a Group Ilie Nastase.

"It was a tough match," he said, "with a lot of long rallies. He obviously fought to the end as always and made it extremely difficult. But he didn't serve as well as he can which helped me and I played a bit more solid towards the end of both sets which got me the win. A few years ago I got knocked out in the group stages by one game I think so I could still go out.

"All of the players love this event that is why it is staying here for the next few years," he added. "My brother is playing it this year which is great. It is obviously going to be a busy couple of weeks for us with the Davis Cup final next week."

While Murray usually excels on home soil, this tournament tends to be the exception which proves the rule. His last competitive match here, 12 months previously, resulted in the heaviest tour-level defeat of his career, 6-0, 6-1, to Roger Federer. Compared to his exploits at Wimbledon and Queen's Club, he had previously won just seven and lost eight of his matches here, with no titles.

Ferrer, known as the Little Beast, is a wily, veteran campaigner who grafts as hard as anyone on tour, but expectations were that the first set would prove crucial. In 102 previous matches this year, nether man had lost after winning the first set and so it proved again here. With the Spaniard experiencing the yips on his ball toss, it was the Scot who was making more inroads, seeing four break points come and go before he finally made the breakthrough. Tellingly, the set was secured with a Ferrer double fault on match point.

Typically Ferrer wasn't prepared to give up without a fight, breaking the Murray serve immediately at the start of the second set, but he had no answer when the Scot raised his game, Some excellent ball striking gave him parity in the set again at 3-3 and before long Ferrer was serving to stay in the match, his ball toss malfunctioning again as he stared down two match points. Ignoring what looked like another double on match point, the Scot covered the net, putting one last overhead away with aplomb to seal the deal.