Second seed Federer lost just eight of his service points to beat eighth seed Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-1 in 69 minutes in their first Group B match at The O2 in London.
Federer, who first played Juan Carlos Ferrero at the season-ending championships in 2002 when it was held in Shanghai, had previously held the most match wins record with Ivan Lendl.
"I'm happy with my level of play today against Janko, who is obviously a good player. I think it's nice conditions here. I've had a good year. It's true, I feel like I'm striking the ball well after today. I hope it's a sign for more to come hopefully."
The crowd got into Tuesday's match, complete with cowbells ringing and constant chanting for Federer.
''I'm very, very honored, really, and very proud in some ways to be so well liked by so many fans around the world, just not in one particular place or one country,'' Federer said. ''It really seems to be everywhere I go I get a lot of fan support.''
Federer raced into a 3-0 lead after nine minutes of play as Tipsarevic, who has been under the weather in recent days, struggled to adjust to the conditions. The Serbian won the fourth game, but Federer swept through the first set in 30 minutes, having hit 12 winners and committed nine unforced errors. Tipsarevic won 15 of his 22 service points.
The Swiss, who picked up the title in 2003-04, 2006-07 and 2010-11, completely dominated the second set, but Tipsarevic continued to battle, having qualified outright for the first time. Federer won five straight games from 1-1, as Tipsarevic’s forehand error count hit 13 for the match. Federer is now 40-7 lifetime at the prestigious championships.
Tipsarevic saved five of nine break points but committed 21 unforced errors in total and drops to 0-6 overall against Federer.
"I think Roger was just too good,” said Tipsarevic. “I have not been feeling great for the last couple of days, but even in the previous matches that I played Roger, I wasn't having that much success, as you can see."
"I still had some little things I had to work through the last couple of days."
"Really since yesterday I feel fine. So obviously it was good for me to start on Tuesday. I'm happy with my performance today. No pain anymore anywhere. I'm happy with my level of play today."
Federer will expect to face tougher tests in the shape of Paris Masters champion David Ferrer and Juan Martin Del Potro, who beat him in the Swiss Indoors final last month.
His decision not to defend his Paris Masters 1000 title gifted Novak Djokovic the year-end No. 1 ranking, but Federer has no regrets about pulling out as he declared himself injury free for the season finale.
Date: 6th November 2012, Source: ATP and ESPN
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