Murray through to the quarters

[Poetry_In_Blue 1,043]

British number one Andy Murray kept his Masters Cup hopes alive by beating Fabrice Santoro to reach the Paris Masters quarter-finals on Thursday.

Murray, 20, breezed past French veteran Santoro 6-4 6-2 and next faces either Richard Gasquet or James Blake.

Only the top eight players in the ATP Race qualify for the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai.

The young Scot, who began the week 11th in the standings, is chasing one of the two remaining places.

Although Fernando Gonzalez is a long way ahead at seventh in the Race, Murray - who won his third career title in St Petersburg on Sunday - was only three points behind Tommy Haas in the eighth and last qualifying spot at the start of the week.

Gasquet, Blake, Mikhail Youzhny, Guillermo Canas, Fernando Gonzalez, Tomas Berdych and Marcos Baghdatis are also still in contention for the final two places.

Good to see him getting back to his best, will be good for him if he does make it to the Shangai Masters Cup.

[Muff 245]

Forgot that was on today, b*stard. Very good win, Santoro is an akward and annoying player to play against. Murray v Blake/Gasquet will be a good match. Hopefully Gasquet wins that encounter to face Murray. That would be a good match and a very good win if Murray could beat him.

Just imagine what he could of done had he not spent a lot of this year injured!!

[Poetry_In_Blue 1,043]

I agree, the best British player in such a long time, even better than Henman when he was at his peak.

And the best bit about it?

He is Scottish!

[bluenose_72 198]

i watched the match and murray played very well. as has been said santoro is an awkward bastard to play. he constantly slices the ball and is great at the net. but murray showed great variation in his game and made some terrific passing shots that even santoro had to applaud.

a murray/gasquet match would be great to watch!