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Nishikori overcomes stagefright to star at ATP Tour Finals

London (AFP) - Japan's Kei Nishikori admitted he had to overcome a case of severe stagefright before marking his ATP Tour Finals with an impressive 6-4, 6-4 victory over Andy Murray.

Nishikori is the first Asian singles player to qualify for the prestigious season-ending tournament and he had the honour of playing in the opening match against former Wimbledon champion Murray on Sunday.

It was a proud moment for Nishikori but his emotions got the better of him when he walked on court in front of a capacity 17,500-crowd at London's O2 Arena.

After a tense start as he came to terms with his new surroundings, Nishikori eventually rose to the occasion and delivered a dominant display to defeat home favourite Murray.

"The stadium is huge and I tried not to look up too much because there were so many people on the top tier. I just tried to stay focused," Nishikori said.

"Maybe when I walked into the stadium I was nervous, but at the same time I was really excited to play with this crowd.

"I was thinking, I'm very honoured to be here for the first time as a top-eight player.

"I was a little bit tight in the beginning, so I was really happy that I played good tennis in this situation. I tried to stay calm when he was playing a little better. I got tight again honestly but I managed to play pretty solid at the end."

With matches against Roger Federer and Milos Raonic still to come, Nishikori has more work to do to reach the semi-finals but he sees no reason why he can't extend his stay in London beyond the group stage.

"I hope so. There is still a long way to going to the final and to win it, but that's what I'm trying to aim for," he said.

"I was little bit surprised at how I played, very confident. Now I'm very much looking forward to the next match."

- On the rise -

Although he had lost his previous three meetings with Murray, Nishikori had no reason to fear the Scot after enjoying the best season of his career.

He reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open in September and became the first Asian man to finish in the world's top 10 since 1973 thanks to a personal best 52 match wins this season.

Although he lost the final in New York to Marin Cilic, Nishikori has continued to shine, winning tournaments in Kuala Lumper and Tokyo to climb to fifth in the world.

He puts his success down to finally persuading himself that he has no reason to feel inferior to the top stars.

"Yeah, I was struggling with that actually, because when I was junior, I wasn't thinking too much, so I was able to play good tennis with anyone. But after turning pro, I was feeling a lot of respect to everybody, especially top players," Nishikori said.

"The first time I played Roger I couldn't do anything because I respected him too much. I wasn't going for the win, I was just playing against my idol. That was one of the problems I had.

"But after a couple years, I got mentally strong. You have to believe in yourself to beat these top players.

"I was looking up to people like (Chinese former Grand Slam winner) Li Na. I felt a lot of motivation from them."