Roger Federer fires the opening verbal volley at Andy Murray

Murray goes into their Group B match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals with an impressive 8-5 career advantage over arguably the greatest player the sport has ever seen.

However, the world No5 is still without a Grand Slam title while Federer has won 16 of those, his last coming after a straight sets victory over Murray at the Australian Open in January.

Murray was also beaten by Federer in his only other Slam final — the 2008 US Open — and 12 months ago also lost against him in a group game at the first Tour Finals at London's O2.

The Scot did win their last two matches — the Masters finals in Canada and China — but the difference in their success at the very biggest tournaments is an edge the world No2 knows he has to use. And Federer underlined that point after easing past David Ferrer in his opening group match 6-1, 6-4 last night.

"Murray and I have kind of peaked at similar times this year," he said. "We both played well at the Australian, then we played well in Toronto and in Shanghai. Here it seems like we're both playing well again and the only difference is I have the Slam and the Basle, Stockholm and Cincinnati titles.

"He has the Toronto and Shanghai tournament victories but I have been a bit more consistent than he has, otherwise I wouldn't be in front in the rankings. He has had a great season and it will be a great match."

Murray claimed an impressive 6-2, 6-4 win over world No4 Robin Soderling yesterday but is taking nothing for granted. He said: "Every time you play against Roger, it's tough. I played great against Robin but I could play horrible against Roger. I need to make sure I practice well before then, give myself the best chance to play well.
If I do that, I'll have a chance of winning."

Murray added: "Tactically it was a great match [against Robin]. I played very smart tennis. And even when it was getting tough in the second set, I stuck to my tactics well and managed to come through.

"Robin is a great player, a big guy. He has played most of his best tennis indoors. Most of his tournament wins have come indoors. So to win with that scoreline is obviously great."

Soderling was gracious in defeat and highlighted the aggressive nature of Murray's game, which is an aspect of his play that has been open to question this year. He said: "Andy served really well and maybe that's the only thing I was a little bit surprised with. He was putting a lot of first serves in. And he was defending really well.

"I was hitting the ball pretty hard sometimes, trying to be aggressive. Every time I came to the net, he came up with a really good shot. All credit to him."

Novak Djokovic was due to face Tomas Berdych this afternoon ahead of tonight's clash between Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick.