Andy Murray was on court until 2am this morning as he beat James Blake at the Paris Masters and fears he will still be feeling the effects when he faces Radek Stepanek this afternoon.

The world No4 had to dig deep to see off the American 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 and set up a third-round tie with Czech Stepanek, who earlier in the evening saw off Viktor Troicki, of Serbia, 6-4, 6-0.

Murray (right) admitted the match took a lot out of him and said: "I don't know if you can recover 100 per cent, it's a very, very difficult thing to do.

"By the time I get back and have food, see my physio, it's 4am and any athlete will tell you it's not the easiest thing to do. I don't expect to be feeling great but I'll just try and fight as hard as I can."

Murray, who signalled his return from a six-week lay-off with a wrist injury by winning last weekend's Valencia title - his sixth of the year - is putting together an impressive run of wins as he builds up to the tour finals at the O2 Arena in Greenwich starting next week.

However, the same cannot be said for Roger Federer after the world No1 suffered a shock 6-3, 6-7, 4-6 defeat to unheralded Frenchman Julien Benneteau, who is ranked 49th in the world.

"I can definitely play much better but I can also play much worse," said Federer. "It wasn't a bad performance. I definitely had chances but I missed them."

Rafael Nadal needed to save five match points before overcoming Nicolas Almagro 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 and revealed he had been hampered by a blister on his right foot.