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FIRST SET Murray 1-0 Nieminen
Murray serves first and it's a fine opening from the Scot. Full of first-serves, Murray pushes Nieminen about the court, finding a cross-court winner and then forcing three errors to take the game to love. Lest we forget, Murray entered this tournament on the back of a minor car crash on Monday... no sign at all of any problems so far... 1009: So, a bit of chat about the race for the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. The top eight in the ATP race qualify but even now, with this the last Masters series this season, it's all a wee bit up in the air to be honest. Even David Nalbandian, down in 25th, has a chance to qualify for the prestigious end-of-season tournament because the winner of this tournament will add 100 points to their season haul - which could be enough to take the Argentine above Tommy Haas in eighth. For his part, Murray is just three points off Haas, with Tommy Robredo, Tomas Berdych and James Blake also sitting above the Scot as we stand. Simply put, Murray has to win today to stand any chance of reaching Shanghai and progress thereafter must be checked against his closest rivals. He's in form, though, so who knows... 1000: So here we go for one last time this year.... or maybe not. This is the final event of the regular season but our man Murray can extend his year if he does something special in Paris. He will need to reach at least the quarters, and probably further, if he is to qualify for the eight-man Masters Cup in Shanghai later in the month. The first man standing in his way is cheery Finn Nieminen. Cheery and worryingly in form. Only last week, the 26-year-old from Masku beat Guillermo Canas, Fernando Gonzalez and Marcos Baghdatis before losing to Roger Federer in Basel. Still, Murray did even better by winning his third career title in St Petersburg on Sunday and he won their only previous encounter last year, albeit in three tight sets.
Murray serves first and it's a fine opening from the Scot. Full of first-serves, Murray pushes Nieminen about the court, finding a cross-court winner and then forcing three errors to take the game to love. Lest we forget, Murray entered this tournament on the back of a minor car crash on Monday... no sign at all of any problems so far... 1009: So, a bit of chat about the race for the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. The top eight in the ATP race qualify but even now, with this the last Masters series this season, it's all a wee bit up in the air to be honest. Even David Nalbandian, down in 25th, has a chance to qualify for the prestigious end-of-season tournament because the winner of this tournament will add 100 points to their season haul - which could be enough to take the Argentine above Tommy Haas in eighth. For his part, Murray is just three points off Haas, with Tommy Robredo, Tomas Berdych and James Blake also sitting above the Scot as we stand. Simply put, Murray has to win today to stand any chance of reaching Shanghai and progress thereafter must be checked against his closest rivals. He's in form, though, so who knows... 1000: So here we go for one last time this year.... or maybe not. This is the final event of the regular season but our man Murray can extend his year if he does something special in Paris. He will need to reach at least the quarters, and probably further, if he is to qualify for the eight-man Masters Cup in Shanghai later in the month. The first man standing in his way is cheery Finn Nieminen. Cheery and worryingly in form. Only last week, the 26-year-old from Masku beat Guillermo Canas, Fernando Gonzalez and Marcos Baghdatis before losing to Roger Federer in Basel. Still, Murray did even better by winning his third career title in St Petersburg on Sunday and he won their only previous encounter last year, albeit in three tight sets.
Source: BBC Sport
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