Murray aiming to blow Gasquet away in Masters bid

Published on Friday 2 November 2007 11:58

ANDY MURRAY was set to take on Richard Gasquet in the Paris Masters today hoping to win and move a step closer to the season-ending Masters Cup.

The Scot beat Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 6-2 yesterday to set up the quarter-final clash against another Frenchman, Gasquet.

Murray's win at the St Petersburg Open last week put him in contention for the prestigious end-of-season event and a strong finish in France could see him surge into the top eight of ATP Tour Race and qualify.

Speaking about his chances of making the Masters Cup, Murray said: "The pressure is actually getting less. Each day guys are going to drop out [of the race] and you've just got to keep winning. I don't feel like there's as much pressure on me as a lot of the guys and I'll just go into my match and give it my best. I've got to win my matches and if I do win that there's a good chance I'll be there in Shanghai. Obviously if I lose I've got no shot."

Santoro did Murray a favour in the previous round, knocking out the dangerous Novak Djokovic, but he showed little of that spark against the Scot. The 20-year-old broke the veteran's serve at the second time of asking before claiming a break of his own in the following game. But that was as good as it got for the 34-year-old as Murray hit a string of fine winners to clinch a second break before taking the set. The second set was even more emphatic with Murray breaking twice as he won the first four games without answer, taking two consecutive games without surrendering a single point. His serve, much improved from his meeting with Jarkko Nieminen in the previous round, did not let him down and he closed out the game in style.