Fed defeats Murray to seal top spot

Roger Federer beat Britain's Andy Murray in three sets yesterday at the ATP World Tour Finals to guarantee finishing the season as the World No 1.

Roger Federer beat Britain's Andy Murray in three sets yesterday at the ATP World Tour Finals to guarantee finishing the season as the World No 1.

Roger Federer celebrates a winner against Andy Murray at the ATP World Tour Finals in London yesterday. Federer won 3-6, 6-3, 6-1. pic/Getty Images

The Swiss won the Group A round-robin match 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in one hour and 57 minutes before a capacity crowd of 17,500 at London's O2 Arena as the World No 4 slowly crumbled.

The win earned Federer enough ranking points to ensure he cannot be overtaken by Spain's Rafael zNadal at the season-ending tournament of the world's top players in the British capital.

In Thursday's final Group A games, Federer must defeat Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro who beat the Swiss in this year's US Open final if he does not want to risk going out of the tournament.

Murray and Spain's Fernando Verdasco face off with the winner earning the chance to claim a semi-final spot.

Murray, who has won six ATP Tour titles in the last 12 months more than any of his rivals went into the match with Federer boasting a 6-3 overall lead, all of those contests having taken place on hard courts like the O2 Arena.

However, Federer had won their previous clash, ending a four-game Murray winning streak by defeating the Scot 6-2, 7-6 (10/8) in the Cincinnati semi-finals in August.