Andy Murray Reaches Shanghai Masters Second Round With Teymuraz Gabashvili Win

Andy Murray's improvement continued as he eased into the Shanghai Masters second round with a straight sets win over Teymuraz Gabashvili.

The 27-year-old prevailed 6-1 7-5 to set up a meeting with Jerzy Janowicz for a second successive week to boost his attempts of reaching the season ending World Tour Finals in London.

Playing his first round one match at a Masters Series event for six years, Murray cruised into a one-set lead but an early break in the second from Gabashvili threatened to take the match into a decider.

But as the Russian came out to serve for the set, Murray reeled off three successive games to complete a two set win and sustain his impressive form in Asia.

Victory at the Shenzhen Open and a semi-final appearance at the China Open has seen Murray rise to ninth in the race to London rankings but the two-time grand slam winner is downplaying the significance of reach the season ending tour finals.

"I haven't thought that much about it," Murray told Sky Sports. "Maybe when you get back from Asia you start to look at that a little bit more. The reason why I came here was to try and build some momentum going into the end of the year and give me some confidence.

"I wanted to try and win some tournaments again and get to some latter stages and play in some finals, semi-finals and play in some big matches against some top players. That's what I really wanted.

"I'll see where I am at when I get back from here and if I still have a shot then definitely I'll go for it.

"The last few years I've been lucky going into Paris in the last tournament of the year safe so it will be interesting being in a different position this year going in knowing anything can happen. There will be pressure on everyone and I will try to play well."