Murray and Nadal in demand for World Tour Finals

Andy Murrays Vienna Open triumph saw the Scot boost his hopes of reaching the ATP World Tour Finals. Picture: AP

Home favourite Murray is one of several players scrambling to accumulate enough ATP Race points to grab one of the three remaining spots while already-qualified Nadal has been diagnosed with appendicitis and question marks remain over his appearance.

Murray, an ever-present at the season-ender since it came to London’s cavernous O2 Arena alongside the River Thames in 2009, apart from last year when he was recovering from back surgery, guarantees a spike in ticket sales at the hugely popular event.

Likewise, 14-times grand slam champion Nadal boasts an army of fans worldwide and should he succumb to ill health the event would be down-valued, whatever the quality of the eight men who do line up for the ATP’s showpiece tournament.

A few weeks ago Murray looked in serious jeopardy of missing the cut after a lean year but a late burst of form, with titles in Shenzhen and Vienna, has moved him to eighth in the Race to London.

It is mighty close, however, with Spain’s David Ferrer and Canada’s Milos Raonic within touching distance of the Scot ahead of the final regular events of the year in Basel, Valencia and the Paris Masters, the latter with 1,000 points on the line.

Murray’s 2012 Olympic gold medal in London and last year’s unforgettable Wimbledon triumph has led to a huge upsurge in his popularity with the British public which led to him winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award last year. He would be the fans’ first choice to win the Tour Finals title.

While Murray is clearly keen to qualify for London, evidenced by his decision to take a wildcard for Vienna, he is more concerned with returning to the kind of form that has earned him two grand slam titles to date.

“I said when I arrived in China that I wanted to try and get to the latter stages of the events I was playing between now and the end of the year and play against the top players to get into the routine and rhythm again,” Murray said. “Obviously, London would be very nice if I can get there but it’s also important for seedings at the Australian Open. To be seeded in the top eight there can make a big difference to the draw and hopefully I will be able to do that.”

Murray plays in Valencia this week with the No 3 seed facing Austria’s Jurgen Melzer in his opening round-of-32 match tomorrow.

Nadal, meanwhile, is at the Swiss Indoors in Basle, where he last night came through his first round match against Simone Bolelli of Italy 6-2, 6-2.

Before the match, however, he admitted: “It’s going to be one of the most dangerous first rounds in a 500 tournament that I’ve played in a long time. I haven’t practised well enough or enough times. My body feels more tired than usual when I’m playing.”

Apart from Nadal, the other players already qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals are Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Marin Cilic and Stanislas Wawrinka.

Meanwhile, Marcel Granollers’ bid for a second Valencia Open title ended abruptly as he was forced to pull out of this year’s event through injury midway through his first-round match.

Facing Spanish compatriot Pascal Carreno Busta, the world No 48 – who won the tournament in 2011 – was trailing 6-2 3-1 when a leg-muscle problem brought the match to an early conclusion.

Wild card Carreno Busta will now take on either No 4 seed and Spanish compatriot Feliciano Lopez or Slovakian qualifier Norbert Gombos, who meet each other today.

Only two other first-round matches were completed yesterday, with another Slovakian in Martin Klizan beating American wild card Stefan Kozlov 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the last 16 of the tournament.

Yen-Hsun Lu from Chinese Taipei also progressed in straight sets with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and will next face either American No 5 seed John Isner or another Spaniard in Tommy Robredo.

No 1 seed David Ferrer is not in action until tomorrow when he goes up against Andreas Seppi, while No 2 seed Tomas Berdych will take on Pablo Andujar.