Andy Murray Qualifies For London

Andy Murray comfortably came through his third round match at the Shanghai Masters against Jeremy Chardy and the victory saw him qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2.

Murray has now reached the end of year tournament for the third successive year and will join Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

The Scot crashed out of the Beijing Open early at the hands of Ivan Ljubicic last week but looks to have put that behind him as he powered past Chardy.

But Murray faced break points in his opening service game as Chardy took the first three points of the match but the world number four found a way back into the game to hold.

Murray broke Chardy in the next match to immediately gain the upper hand. Murray's serve did come under fire again in the first set as Chardy had chances to get back on level terms in the fifth and seventh games.

But the Frenchman failed to take of the chances that he carved out for himself and left Murray to serve for the opening set, which he did to take it 6-3.

Murray had more break points in the third game of the second set but was unable to convert to get that early break. But he took the lead in the seventh game when a double fault from Chardy handed him the break.

With the break under his belt Murray went on to take the match 6-3 6-4 and book his spot at the O2.

Speaking to the BBC after the match Murray said: "It was a big match because I knew if I won I qualified for London. I was a little bit nervous.

"I served well under pressure. That was really, really important to get a good start in the match because he's very, very streaky.

"He can play some great tennis, so I needed to try to get ahead early and I managed to do that."

He will now face Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in the quarter final as the Frenchman, who has made his return from injury, saw off Florian Mayer in straight sets.

It was a closely fought opening set, but Tsonga took it eventually 7-5. But it was the Frenchman who took control of the second and wrapped up the match 7-5 6-3 in just eighty five minutes.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw