MURRAY ANSWERS LONDON CALLING;SHANGHAI MASTERS TENNIS: ANDY SEALS FINALS SPOT
ANDY MURRAY is on his way to London - but only after he attends to some unfinished business in China.
The Scot booked his place at the ATP Tour World Finals last night by reaching the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
His swift 6-3 6-4 win over Jeremy Chardy earned him enough ranking points to book his ticket to the finals which will be held at the O2 Arena next month.
Murray said: "It's a great achievement to qualify for the Tour finals and I'm very happy to have achieved it with a few tournaments left.
"It was a good match. I was happy with the way I played too, which helps."
Murray had every right to be happy with his play. He took one look at the big-serving Frenchman and put him in his place from the start.
Fending off three break points in the opening game as he found his bearings in the Qi Zhong Stadium, Murray was barely troubled again.
Looking better with every round, Murray is looking forward to the sharp end of the tournament this week.
He'll head into today's clash with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last eight with no pressure and he admits that's a big positive.
Murray said: "There are still big tournaments left - here is a huge event and then the Paris Masters. I won the Valencia tournament last year so it's always nice to go back to somewhere where you played well.
"I want to try to win as many matches as I can but at the same time I want to try to improve and do the stuff I've been practising.
"But it's something you have to balance. You can't just go out there and practise, go through the motions. You have to make sure that you're really giving 100 per cent."
He will need that intensity as the week progresses.
Sharp Murray's draw has opened up nicely with the defeat of Rafael Nadal yesterday - he lost 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to Jurgen Melzer - but that means the Scot can't afford to take his eye off the ball for a moment.
Murray had been drawn to play Nadal in the semi finals but the champion of the US and French Opens and Wimbledon is rapidly running out of gas at the season's end.
With Nadal's departure, a huge opportunity has opened up and Murray needs to be sharp to take it.
He said: "I'd love to win here. I'm sure everyone in the tournament would love to."
At the same time, the Scot is keeping his focus on the ATP finals. There, he'll have to play the seven top players in the world and needs to be at his peak if he is to stand a chance of winning.
That means his training schedule will be carefully planned between now and the end of the season and there won't be a day wasted once he leaves China.
He said: "The two weeks between now and Valencia will be important so that I train properly and get myself in good match shape again."
Meanwhile, brother Jamie Murray and England's Ross Hutchins cruised through to the semi-finals of the Tashkent Challenger in Uzbekistan.
The second seeds beat Austrians Nickolaus Moser and Alex Peya 6-4, 6-3 to set up a clash with Dom Inglot and Treat Huey.
And Glasgow's Jamie Baker had a dose of luck as he and Kevin Kim reached the semis of the Tiburon Challenger in California. The Scots-American pairing were due to face Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione but the Aussies were forced to withdraw.
