Andy Murray secured his place at next month's season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London with a highly impressive victory over Grigor Dimitrov in the third round of the BNP Paribas Masters.
Andy Murray
Paris: Andy Murray guaranteed his place at the World Tour Finals in London with a 6-3, 6-3 third round victory over Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov at the Paris Masters on Thursday.
Andy Murray
The 27-year-old Scot, who also stays on course for a fourth tournament victory in just six weeks, will now play either world number one Novak Djokovic or French showman Gael Monfils in the quarter-finals on Friday. Murray joins Djokovic, Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic in reaching the season-ending showpiece with David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych and Kei Nishikori in possession of the other three spots but not yet assured places.
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Canada's Milos Raonic is now the only player who can gatecrash the top eight but needs to win the Paris tournament to guarantee his place. Murray aimed a jibe at his critics after the match who have said he has had a poor season by writing "Bad Year" on the courtside camera lens. It is the seventh straight year he has qualified for the Finals although he didn't play last year due to his back injury.
"I served really well and I don't think I had any break points against me so if you do that and pick up a break or two that's what I did," said Murray. "It's going to be tough against either Novak (Djokovic) or Gael (Monfils). I think Gael is one of my favourite players and he's very popular with the fans here. If there's one player I'd pay to watch it would be him. "As for Novak, well he's still fighting for the number one spot and very tough so they're both difficult opponents."
Berdych is one win from sealing his place in London after easing into the last eight with a comfortable win over Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. Following a first round defeat at the Valencia Open last week, the 29-year-old Czech evened his record against Lopez at six wins apiece with a 7-5, 6-3 victory. Chasing an 11th ATP title, and third of the year, the Australian Open semi-finalist now plays South African 14th seed Kevin Anderson for a place in the semi-finals.
Anderson won a three-hour thriller over Swiss third seed Wawrinka 6-7 (2/7), 7-5, 7-6 (7/3). Anderson, who had never been past the third round in Paris, converted a third match point to set up the meeting with Berdych. "It was a great match and some of my best matches have been against Stan," said a delighted Anderson. "I fought well out there and was in trouble at 5-4 down but suddenly I was back in front again so I'm very, very happy.
"It's going to be a big challenge (against Berdych) but I'm not going to worry about that just yet. I'm going to enjoy this win and later tonight I'll start thinking about tomorrow (Friday)." Earlier, former champion Ferrer kept his quest on track to reach a second straight Paris final as he swept aside Spanish compatriot Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 6-2.
He needs to reach the semi-finals to guarantee his spot in London and will now face either French number one Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Japanese star Nishikori. Nishikori is trying to become the first Japanese player to qualify for the World Finals. Raonic kept his slender chances alive of reaching the Finals with a hard fought 7-5, 7-6 (9/7) victory over Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut.
In other third round matches, world number two Federer chases a 14th straight victory, including tournament wins at Basel and Shanghai, takes on world number 176 Frenchman Lucas Pouille who came through qualifying. The winner of that match will face Raonic in the last eight.
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