Britain’s Andy Murray reached the Paris Masters final for the first time with a 6-4 6-3 win over Spain’s David Ferrer.
The second seed won the last five games of the match to seal victory in one hour 35 minutes.
The 28-year-old Scotsman said: “I played aggressive tennis and was particularly successful at the net.”
In Sunday’s final will play world number one Novak Djokovic, who beat French Open champion Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-3 3-6 6-0.
Murray will finish the year second in the world rankings if he defeats Djokovic.
He faces a challenging end to the season, with the ATP World Tour Finals in London only eight days away, followed by Britain’s first Davis Cup final since 1978, which gets under way in Belgium in three weeks’ time.
He added: “It would be nice to achieve my highest-ever year-end ranking, but it is more about seeding for the Australian Open in January. It will help my chances more than if I was seeded three or four.
“I’ve still got the Davis Cup final to look forward to and these are two things I have never achieved before. It will help keep me motivated.”
Murray starts and finishes quickly
The world number three has made a habit of starting quickly in Paris this week and broke his opponent’s first service game for the fourth successive match.
It spurred eighth seed Ferrer into action and the Spaniard levelled for 3-3 when two unforced errors gave him the break back.
In a see-saw opening set, Ferrer set up four more break points in the eighth game but Murray saved them and went on to steal the Spaniard’s serve after he made a string of unforced errors.
The Briton, who now holds a 11-6 career lead over Ferrer, finished a superb exchange at the net with a fine sliced lob to set up two set points. On the first one, Ferrer netted a routine backhand.
However, Ferrer stayed focused and raced to a 3-1 lead in the second set.
Murray dug deep and discovered his range again, finding gravity-defying angles to earn three more breaks of the Spaniard’s serve, wrapping up the victory on his first match point when Ferrer netted a drop shot.
| BBC Tennis correspondent Russell Fuller | |
|---|---|
| “Murray’s successful week in Paris does not come without its drawbacks. He will go straight on to the clay on Monday afternoon to do four days of preparation for the Davis Cup final and has told BBC Sport “it’s far from ideal”. | |
| “Murray is planning to revert to hard courts at the end of the week to get ready for the World Tour Finals, which begin the following Sunday. | |
| “But that may not happen if Murray’s clay-court practice doesn’t go to plan, or he has any concerns about his back.” | |
The Scot was rewarded for taking the initiative from the outset and hit 26 winners to just 10 from his 33-year-old opponent.
Murray added: “There were a couple of periods where I made more mistakes than usual. In one game I missed four backhands, but when you play high-risk tennis that is what happens.
“I played a good match, apart from the errors.”
Murray was able to report a clean bill of health after complaining of a stiffness in his lower back after his punishing three-set victory over Richard Gasquet on Friday.
He added: “My back felt better today. It was a bit stiff when I got up, but I spent a couple of hours with the physio this morning and that helped.
“As a result, I was able to serve bigger and more consistently than yesterday and earn more free points.”
Djokovic awaits
Defending champion Djokovic extended his winning run in this competition to 21 matches after ousting Wawrinka in one hour 51 minutes.
The 28-year-old, seeking his 10th title of the year, has now won 19 of his 23 contests against the world number four.
Wawrinka ended Djokovic’s 29-set winning streak to level the match, but fell away in the decider, failing to win a game.
Djokovic has triumphed in five of his six encounters with Murray this year, including the Australian Open final, and has won 20 of their 29 overall meetings.
