Andy Murray column

ATP World Tour Finals
Venue: O2 Arena, London Dates: 21-28 November
Coverage: One match each day live on BBC TV, streamed online & available through iPlayer; text commentary online and on mobiles for every singles match via BBC Sport website; every singles match live on 5live sports extra.

Watch highlights of Murray v Federer from the O2

By Andy Murray
World number five and British number one

ATP World Tour Finals Group B:
Roger Federer beat Andy Murray 6-4 6-2

If you can't find any first serves or get any returns in the court, you're not going to beat Roger Federer, and that was the reason why I lost.

I enjoy playing on that court so much and the fans were great again, so I was really disappointed for them that I couldn't make it more of a match.

I got off to a bad start and did what I normally do when that happens - try to slow down as much as possible. That's not just because I was playing Roger, it's the same in every match and you don't really change what you do, but even when I was slowing down I couldn't find any first serves or get any returns in the court.

Roger obviously played a good match but I need to look at my own performance

It was nothing to do with my game plan, that might change slightly depending on court surface, but that was the 14th time we'd played each other so we know each other's games. There isn't a big change you can make in your tactics every time you play each other, you just try to play your game as best you can against the top players.

Roger obviously played a good match but I need to look at my own performance. It's pretty simple really - I didn't serve well and I didn't return well, and they're the two things I need to do a lot better on Thursday.

I won't dwell on it too much now but I'll analyse the tournament as a whole when I'm done with it. I can't get myself too down as I've got another match to play.

You have to move on from a defeat like that but the important thing from this tournament is to qualify from the group, you don't have to win every match, which is nice.

Last year, I was in a similar position after winning one and losing one in my first two matches, and I just have to try to win my last group match again and put today to the back of my mind. I was a bit unlucky last year as I went out on percentage of games won, but that won't affect the way I play this time.

David Ferrer is a really tough opponent and makes a lot of balls so I just need to concentrate on winning the match. I won't focus on winning every single point of every single game.

You need to try to treat it like another match, try your best to win and whatever happens, happens, but if I don't win the match then I won't be in the semis, so that's what I need to do.

If I can come through the last group match and then the semis on Saturday, then hopefully I might get another chance to play Roger and play a bit better next time.

I'd love the chance to play another three matches in that atmosphere.

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Andy Murray was talking to Piers Newbery and will be contributing regular columns throughout the ATP World Tour Finals

For all the latest news on Andy, visit his website, www.andymurray.com