Federer wins first World Tour Finals match

Swiss tennis star Roger Federer has started his World Tour Finals campaign with a win against Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

Federer endured a barrage of big hitting by Tsonga, but came back in the third set for victory at the season-ending tournament’s first round-robin game in London.

The Swiss came into the competition on a 12-match winning streak following titles in Basel and Paris, where he beat Tsonga in straight sets in the final a week ago.

The 16-time Grand Slam champion looked set for another easy win when he took the first set in 21 minutes, but Tsonga found his feet and broke early in the second set before taking the match into a decider.

A closely fought third set ended when the pressure seemed to get to Tsonga and Federer broke him at 5-4.

Federer said afterwards that he was pleased to have got off to a good start.

“I think this is the best I’ve played all year. It helped that I had some good time off before playing great at Basel and Paris,” he said.