Tennis: Murray is in a hurry

ANDY MURRAY cruised into the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters this morning with a 54-minute demolition of France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The Dunblane player will now face the winner of the tie between Juan Monaco and Jurgen Melzer.

"That was good, I served really well," said Murray after his 6-2 6-2 win. "Jo was struggling a bit on his serve and wasn't serving as big as normal, so I was able to get into the return games. It was a good performance, I hit the ball really well and the surface here is good for me."

The success comes hard on the heels of his third-round win over another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy, 6-3, 6-4, which ensured he will end his season at the prestigious Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the third year in a row. Murray follows Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in qualifying for the eight-man event, which is being held in London for the second successive season.

It has been a very mixed season for the Scot, with highs including an Australian Open appearance in January, reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon and winning the Toronto Masters.