ANDY Murray might have opted out of watching Scotland's World Cup qualifier at Wembley last week but the 29-year-old produced a world class 90 minutes in London last night to take care of Marin Cilic as he officially played as World No 1 for the first time. Murray says he doesn't feel any different since acquiring the title of the world's best tennis player on Monday and there must have been little discernible difference yesterday for his vanquished opponent.

The Croat's victory against Novak Djokovic in Paris last week had led indirectly to this native of Dunblane ascending to the summit of the sport but the 2014 US Open winner was unable to summon up a similar performance to stop the Scot in his tracks as the new number one racked up his 20th successive tour win by a 6-3, 6-2 scoreline for the perfect start he craved to his ATP World Tour Finals campaign. The 29-year-old is now just two matches short of his best-ever winning run of 22, also achieved this year, and ironically brought to an end by Cilic in the Cincinnati Masters in September.

He may be feeling on top of the world right now but the World Tour Finals is one event which Murray still has to tick off his bucket list. This is his eighth appearance in the season-ending event, having never got beyond the semi-finals. Unless, that is, you count his ad hoc appearance on finals day in 2014, where he stood in at short notice for the injured Roger Federer. What better time to end that unfortunate run than this year, when he knows victory would be sure to keep him as the top dog of world tennis when 2017 begins.

"It was a great reception obviously, a really really good atmosphere," he said. "It was obviously nice to play in that stadium with the crowd like that tonight. It helps after a long few months, it is nice to know that you are going to be playing in front of that kind of atmosphere. I wasn't really nervous but it was quite different conditions than they have been during the week."

A strange first set was strewn with errors from both men, with break points arriving in each of the first five games. Murray served four double faults and faced four break points, even if he generally produced his more assured tennis at moments of stress. Both of his break point chances on the Cilic serve were taken as he took the set 6-3. An attritional second set finally began to turn his way as a couple of big forehands did the damage as he broke for 3-2 and then 5-2, then served it out. "When you start winning matches you obviously get confidence, in the important moments, the break points, I was a little bit more solid," he said. "When I got my opportunities I took them and that is what winning matches does for you."