London: Roger Federer recovered from a sloppy start to outclass Czech Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-2 as he began his 14th consecutive ATP Tour Finals appearance in impressive fashion on Sunday.
The Swiss world number three, bidding to win the year-ender for a seventh time, served a two double-faults in his opening service game as he was broken to love, but quickly recovered to leave Berdych floundering.
Berdych did lead 4-3 on serve in the opener but 34-year-old Federer then reeled off seven games in a row, treating a full house at the O2 Arena to his usual showreel of winners from all corners of the court.
There was little Berdych could do and although the 30-year-old Czech managed to avert a second-set drubbing, Federer wrapped up the win in little more than an hour and now needs just one more win to reach 50 at the tournament.
He will face world number one Novak Djokovic, who easily beat Japan`s Kei Nishikori earlier, in his second round-robin match on Tuesday.
