Andy Murray last night boosted his chances of qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals after comfortably beating Canada's Vasek Pospisil 6-4 6-4 in the second round of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
World No.10 Murray needs to climb inside the top eight to make the end-of-year showpiece in London next month.
The Scot changed his schedule, opting to play in the Vienna tournament for the first time in a bid to secure valuable rankings points following his defeat to David Ferrer in the third round of the Shanghai Masters last week.
The hard-fought victory over Pospisil means Murray will now face Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarter-finals.
The 27-year-old was never at his free-flowing best in the contest, handing Pospisil chances in both sets to take the initiative but Murray made his experience count to close out a straight-sets victory.
World No.9 David Ferrer is also through after beating Tobias Kamke earlier in the day but Murray will take heart after eighth-ranked Milos Raonic lost to Ricardas Berankis in the second round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.
Top seed Raonic was beaten 6-3 4-6 6-3 by 116th-ranked journeyman Ricardas Berankis.
Berankis watched 15 aces from Raonic whistle past him, but the Lithuanian qualifier broke the Canadian's powerful serve four times to seal his first ever victory over a top 10 player.
Raonic said: "I did not approach the match in the sort of form I would have liked to.
"I have been feeling sick for the last 10 days with a cold and have been lying in bed. I was only able to prepare over the last two days," Raonic said.
He currently stands eighth in the "Race to London" for the end-of-season ATP World Tour Finals.
"I still haven't lost all my chances to qualify for London. Thankfully I can't say that today's loss has broken my heart," added Raonic.
l Former world No.3 Nikolay Davydenko has announced his retirement from tennis. The 33-year-old won three Masters series titles and reached four Grand Slam semi-finals, losing three times to Roger Federer and once to Mariano Puerta, as well as helping Russia win the Davis Cup in 2006.
His darkest period came in 2007 when he was investigated over possible match-fixing, but he was cleared of any wrong- doing a year later.
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