The final showdown of 2010 finally kicked off today with Andy Murray defeating Robin Soderling 6-2 6-4. Interestingly, many were favouring Le Sod going into the match. Obviously he won in Paris a couple of weeks ago and was looking good, but Murray came out firing today, putting on a flawless display of varied tennis. With the courts slower than their Paris counterparts Muzz decided to hang around far behind the baseline before flipping the switch to offence or else finishing the point with a cruel dropshot when the time was right. And he did so effortlessly.

I was pretty surprised with Soderling’s play though. He was very patchy and his net play was particularly dire. Not only was he failing to move forward when he had Murray on the ropes, but when he did move forward he clearly had no grasp of where he needed to move to at the net, instead leaving massive gaps in the court for Murray to exploit. The second set was slightly closer but the result was inevitable as Murray broke for *4-3 and then served his way to victory.

Many saw this as the pivotal match of the group since Soderling and Murray are so close in ranking and achievements this year. With Murray taking this match, all signs are pointing to Federer and Murray advancing to the semis. But they go out play these matches for a reason, so it will be interesting to see how things unfold in Group B over the next few days.