London: Novak Djokovic had little trouble defeating Tomas Berdych in his first match at the ATP World Tour Finals, winning 6-3, 6-3 on Monday in the Group A match. In doubles, India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi of Belarus defeated Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Oliver Marach of Austria 7-6 (2), 6-4.
The third-ranked Serb served well throughout and never faced a break point. He also ran his sixth-ranked Czech opponent around the court at the O2 Arena, using a variety of forehands and backhands to send Berdych sprinting from side to side.
Djokovic's strong performance aside, Berdych's biggest problem was his serve. He landed only 48 per cent of his first serves and although he only had three double-faults, two of them came in the first game — on the opening point and break point.
After holding to 2-0, Djokovic then had four break points in the third game but Berdych was able to hold on and stay in the set. However, Djokovic broke again in the final game of the first set and then added another in the second game of the second.
Djokovic won the ATP Finals in 2008 but last year failed to advance out of the group stage of the season-ending tournament for the top eight players. Berdych, the only player in the field without an ATP title in 2010, is making his debut.
Berdych has lost four of the five matches he has played against Djokovic. His lone victory came in this year's Wimbledon semifinals.
India tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi on Monday advanced to the second round of the ATP World Tours Finals after he and his partner Max Mirnyi defeated Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach in straight sets here.
Bhupathi, who gave the Asian Games in China a miss to play in the season-ending USD 5,070,000 ATP event, and Mirnyi won 7-6(2), 6-4.
The third-seeded Indo-Belarussian combination, who had won the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Paris title eight days ago, needed one hour and 33 minutes to win the Group B round-robin match.
Bhupathi and Mirnyi targeted Kubot's forehand right from the start but the Indian had his serve broken in the third game when a Kubot return hit the net - evading the long reach of Mirnyi - only to land inside the baseline.
Bhupathi redeemed himself on Marach's serve at 4-3, when, after a long baseline rally, the 36-year-old Indian hit a powerful forehand winner off a lob.
The third seeds went on to seize control of the tie-break by opening up a 4-1 lead and eventually clinched the 50-minute opening set. The duo hit three aces and four double faults but Mirnyi's net play made the difference.
Sixth seeds Kubot and Marach soon found themselves in trouble in the second set at 1-1. A Bhupathi lob on Marach's serve allowed Mirnyi to cross the net for a fine forehand winner down the middle that pierced the Polish-Austrian pair.
Bhupathi and Mirnyi, who appeared at the year-end championships in 2003 and 2004, grew in confidence and maintained the service break advantage to take the second set and win the match.
Bhupathi has won at least one ATP World Tour title for 14 straight years (since 1997) and 33-year-old Mirnyi has captured at least one title for 12 consecutive years (since 1999).
Meanwhile, Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy, seeded third, went down fighting 3-6, 6-7(3) against Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski.
Paes and Dlouhy will have to win the remaining two matches as only the top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals.
They will take on Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Germany's Philipp Petzschner in their next match.
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