Matkowski and Fyrstenberg stun top seeds

London: In sports, it is very often that the underdog gets the sympathy and cheer. It was no different here on a cold and windy Sunday afternoon as the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals got under way here at the impressive O2 Arena with the eighth seeded Polish pairing of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski brought the defending champions and world no.1 Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor down on their knees with a 6-4, 6-4 win in a Group A match of the doubles competition.

The O2 Arena is impressive and this win was even more impressive for the eighth ranked pairing from Poland. "This is the best match we've played this year," admitted Fyrstenberg.

"We went into the match thinking we have to stick to one strategy: keep our serves and keep them strong," he added.

And that worked perfectly for the Poles as they dismantled the top seeds in systematic fashion. Nenad lost his serve in the fifth game of the opening set as Fyrstenberg served out the set 6-4 in a little over half an hour.

And the top pairing ran into further problems right at the start of the second as Nestor succumbed to the guile of a pair that went on growing in confidence before a packed audience. Ultimately that one break was enough as Zimonjic returned a weak second serve from Matkowski into the net and the win was complete in an hour and four minutes.

Going into this match the Poles had a 2-5 record against the top seeds and defending champions. "But now we can derive a lot of confidence from a win like this one," Matkowski admitted.

"And if we continue playing the way we are doing at the moment, I am sure we will have a good week here," he beamed.

Result: Fystenberg/Matkowski beat Nestor/Zimonjic 6-4, 6-4.