LONDON CALLING; TENNIS BRITISH NO.1'S CAPITAL GAIN;Sport
Byline: NEIL McLEMAN
ANDY MURRAY booked his place in next month's Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at London's 02 by reaching the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters.
But world No.1 Rafa Nadal crashed out in China with a shock defeatto Jurgen Melzer.
The Scot joins the Spaniard, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the season finale staged from November 21-28.
The world No.4 cruised to a 6-3 6-4 win over Jeremy Chardy yesterday and will now face another Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the lasteight.
"It was a big match because I knew if I won I qualified for London," said Murray, who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon this year.
"I was a little bit nervous. But it's great having now qualified for the finals, and it's amazing I get to play in front of a home crowd again. It was such a good atmosphere there last year."
Murray was knocked out in the group stage in London last year, in the event won by Nikolay Davydenko of Russia.
Austrian No.1 Melzer is making a late run to become the first player in 20 years to play the singles and doubles competitions in the World Tour Finals after beating Nadal.
The world No.13 had lost his three previous matches to the Spaniard, but won 6-1 3-6 6-3 in two hours yesterday.
It was only the ninth defeat of the year for Nadal, who has won the last three Grand Slam titles.
"I think the key was to put a lot of pressure on him," said Melzer. "You cannot let him play his game. You'll always be second.
"That play with his forehand, he's just too good. So I tried to take the ball early. I was serving really well, especially on big moments.
"I executed my game plan, which was putting a lot of pressure, especially on his forehand. To be honest, I learned from the last matches." Melzer will next meet Juan Monaco of Argentina, who dropped only 12 points on serve to cruise past Mischa Zverev 6-0 6-2 in 66 minutes.
Emilio Sanchez, in 1990, was the last player to do the double shift at the season-ending tournament, with Melzer also bidding to play at the 02 with German Philipp Petzschner.
"To be honest, I could live with that, having busy days in London," he said. "But it's a long way there.
"I'm in the quarter-finals. I have a good chance to reach the semis. I'm almost 900 points off the eighth player. This is a very long way.
"If it somehow happens I'll be there, I'll be happy, and I'll be hopefully performing well."
The Lawn Tennis Association has, meanwhile, denied being in talks with six-time Grand Slam champion Boris Becker over a coaching role in British tennis.
CAPTION(S):
SHANGHAI SURPRISE Rafa Nadal makes a glum exit after his defeat toJurgen Melzer NO TIME TO LOSE Murray raced into the last eight by beating Jeremy Chardy
