Andy Murray of Great Britain (right) poses after winning the final match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France at the ATP Erste Bank Open Tennis tournament in Vienna, yesterday.
Paris : Andy Murray continued his march towards the world number one slot by winning the Vienna Open yesterday. The 29-year-old Scot swept past Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) in the final to earn his seventh title of the year.
The Olympic and Wimbledon champion can take over the world number one ranking from Novak Djokovic if he wins next week's Paris Masters and the Serb fails to reach the final.
He can also take over top spot if he reaches the final and Djokovic loses before the semis in the French capital.
Murray took his recent run to 15 straight victories in which he has picked up the China Open and Shanghai Masters titles as well. He now has 42 career titles and second in Vienna after also winning in 2014. He was in total command against Tsonga, breaking early in each set before his only blip allowed the Frenchman and sixth seed to break back and level at 4-4 in the second set. It was a 14th defeat in 16 meetings with Murray for Tsonga, whose run to the final did at least keep alive his slim hopes of reaching the season ending World Tour Finals in London.
Meanwhile, Marin Cilic tightened his grip on the last qualifying spot in next month's ATP year-end finals with a dominating 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) defeat of Kei Nishikori to win the Swiss Indoors yesterday.
The Croatian triumphed in a repeat of the 2014 US Open final, where he also defeated Asia's best player.
Cilic currently holds the last of the qualifying spots for the World Tour Finals in London but will face a battle next week in Paris in the final event of the regular season.
