Masterly Murray triumphs in St Petersburg

Murray's quick-fire 6-2, 6-3 victory over Fernando Verdasco in the St Petersburg Open final put him within touching distance of qualifying for the £1.8million eightman finale.

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Delight in St Petersburg: Andy Murray is realising his potential at last

"That win was huge," said Murray, who has this week's Paris Masters left to pick up enough qualifying points to sneak into the line-up in China.

"I said at the start of the week that I needed to win this tournament to give myself a chance of making Shanghai. Now I think a couple of matches in Paris, a couple of wins and I'm probably one of the favourites to get there. I've got one more tournament left before Shanghai and I'll try my best to get there."

Making it to the showpiece tournament would be an impressive achievement even if Murray had played a full season, but it would be, as he says, a 'ridiculous effort' given that he missed nearly four months of the year with a wrist injury that kept him out of Wimbledon contention.

It has been made possible by a stunning surge of recent form, capped off by yesterday's win in St Petersburg.

It took Murray just an hour and 17 minutes to add to the title he won in San Jose in February.

Murray said: "If I was to make Shanghai after what I went through in the middle of the year, I think would be an unbelievable effort and I'm going to give it my best shot.

"To even just have a chance is pretty special anyway, so I'm really happy with what I've managed to do since coming back from the injury."

Six of the eight berths for Shanghai are already taken and Chilean Fernando Gonzalez is well placed to take the seventh spot. Spaniard David Ferrer yesterday snatched the sixth spot for the tournament on November 11-18 after Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko and Andy Roddick.

Several players, including Murray, Gonzalez and German Tommy Haas, will be fighting for the two remaining spots.

By winning yesterday, Murray put himself up to 11th in the standings but, crucially, he is now within just three points of Haas, who is currently in the eighth position. Haas will be in action in Paris, as will Tommy Robredo and James Blake, Murray's main rivals for the last qualifying place. He will need to do better than all of them to make it to Shanghai.

"Everybody knows what's going on and what they have to do,' said Murray.

"You'd have to be dumb not to. It's much easier, mentally, I think, to go into a match knowing that if I win I'll make Shanghai. You go out there and give it 110 per cent. If you are thinking, 'If I win this match I'm there', that makes you fight for every ball. I'll be one of the people who is checking what everyone else is doing. I like to know exactly where I'm at and what I'm playing for and it gives you a reason to get fired up for your match.

"You are playing for something that hardly anybody else can say that they've done and I want to know exactly what I need to do in the match. Some guys might not be like that, but it's obviously not that way for me. I'll use it as a motivation."

The winner's cheque he picked up yesterday for his efforts was worth £69,220, which means he racked up an astonishing £899 a minute on court against Verdasco. But it will be small change compared to the riches on offer in Shanghai, with the victor there taking home as much as half a million pounds. Qualifying, however, would be worth far more than money to the 20-year-old Scot.

On the way: Andy Murray hold his winning trophy aloft

"It would be a dream," said Murray. "To be in the top eight players in the world, there are very few players in any sport who can say they've done that. The rankings don't lie, so if you are there, you are one of the best players in the world."

Murray has a bye into the second round in Paris, so he can at least enjoy two days off before playing either Jarkko Nieminen or Juan Monaco on Wednesday. If he gets through, he then faces a possible third-round encounter with his fellow 20-year-old Djokovic.

Federer, meanwhile, clinched the year-end world No 1 ranking for a fourth successive season yesterday courtesy of a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Nieminen in the final of his hometown event in Basel.