ANDY MURRAY admitted yesterday that he may have to add an extra event to his schedule if he needs points to qualify for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.
The Scot defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili, of Russia, 6-1, 7-5 to reach the second round of the Shanghai Masters, and earn more points in his quest to make the eight-man event for the seventh straight year.
The difficulty for Murray is that, having begun the week in ninth place in the standings, 175 points behind Milos Raonic in eighth and 200 behind Tomas Berdych in seventh, he may have to outperform at least two others to secure his spot.
The position is complicated somewhat by Marin Cilic, a first-round loser in Shanghai but who, thanks to a quirky rule, will be guaranteed a place in London as a grand slam champion, even if he falls from his current position of sixth to a place outside the top eight.
It is a rule that has not been necessary to bring into use in the singles event but one that Murray may have to take into consideration when he works out roughly how many points he may need.
With another Masters 1000 to come in Paris in the last week of October, Murray still has time but he could also enter a 500 event in Valencia or Basle the week before that, if need be.
"I'll see where I'm at when I get back [from Shanghai]," Murray said. "If I've still got a shot, then I'll definitely go for it. The past few years, I've been lucky [to be] going into Paris safe [in the knowledge that a place in the finals had been secured]. It'll be interesting being in a different position this year, when anything can happen. There'll be pressure on everyone and I'll try and play well the last few tournaments."
With Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer scheduled to play in Basle, Valencia - where he is a former winner and where top-eight rivals Cilic, Berdych, Kei Nishikori and David Ferrer are all scheduled to play - would appear the more likely potential additional destination for Murray.
His decision will be heavily influenced by what happens this week in Shanghai, where he could meet the world No.1 Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals, having lost handily to the Serb in the semi-finals in Beijing last week.
Today he will play Poland's Jerzy Janowicz for the second successive week and Murray said he was satisfied with his form, even though he had to recover from 5-3 down to see off world No.55 Gabashvili, and would look to start fast against Janowicz today.
"I went down 5-1 when we played last week so hopefully I'll get off to a better start," Murray said. "Then I managed to find my way into the match. He's obviously a dangerous player. He's a big guy.
"He won a very tight match today. He's hit a lot of balls here. I'll try to play a solid match from start to finish and not give him too many opportunities."
Nadal, meanwhile, begins his title bid today against Feliciano Lopez, even though he revealed he has been suffering from appendicitis.
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