• ATP World Tour Finals

Adrenaline-fuelled Murray relying on London crowd

Andy Murray is playing on adrenaline in London © PA Photos

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Andy Murray has predicted the power of home support at London's O2 Arena might prove the difference as he attempts to win a maiden ATP World Tour Finals this week.

Murray made a winning start to his campaign on Monday, beating Tomas Berdych 3-6 6-3 6-4 to put down a marker in a tough group involving Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The 2012 season has been a long and testing one for Murray, who has won Olympic gold and his maiden grand slam title at the US Open. This week's event in London represents the final major hurdle before he can look forward to the close season, and the Brit is relying on the crowd to sweep him to victory.

"It was a good atmosphere," Murray said of the near-capacity 17,000 crowd. "For me it's important in the last week of the year, when everyone's a little bit tired, to have that atmosphere, the big crowd, to give you that extra little push that you need to play good tennis.

"So it was good to be back playing in the UK. I have played some big matches in London this year and the support right throughout has been great.

"It's one last push for the end of the year and having so many people watching helps with the adrenaline. If you can, you need to treat it like a knockout event because if you win the first two matches you usually go through."

Murray had to deal with the disappointment of failing to convert his first 10 break points against Berdych, who claimed the first set. The Brit is prepared for more of the same as the competition progresses, pointing out that the margins are slim in a tournament involving the world's top eight players.

"In indoor matches, when both of us served pretty well and weren't losing too many points on our first serve, it can hinge on a couple of points here or there," Murray said.

"A lot of the break points I didn't waste. If you watched them back he served very well on a lot of them, especially in the first set."

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