• Vienna Open

Murray opens Austria bid with win

Andy Murray is upping his bid to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals © Getty Images

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Andy Murray began his Vienna Open challenge with a 6-4 6-4 win over Vasek Pospisil as he makes a late bid to qualify for next month's ATP Tour Finals at the O2 Arena.

The British No.1 only entered the Austrian event as a late wildcard after defeat to David Ferrer at the Shanghai Masters left him in 11th place in the Race to London - where the top eight in the world will qualify.

Victory over Canadian Pospisil means Murray will now face Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarter-finals.

The 27-year-old was never at his free-flowing best in the contest, handing Pospisil chances in both sets to take the initiative but Murray made his experience count to close out a straight-sets victory.

World number nine Ferrer is also through after beating Tobias Kamke earlier in the day but Murray will take heart after eighth-ranked Milos Raonic lost to Ricardas Berankis in the second round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

Ferrer, who needs to reach Sunday's final to improve his chances of qualifying for the Finals, plays sixth seed Ivo Karlovic in the last eight.

Struff won the last seven points in the third-set tie-breaker to beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-6(6) 2-6 7-6(3).

Earlier, Thomaz Bellucci rallied to beat third seed Feliciano Lopez 6-7(9) 6-1 6-4.

Lopez, ranked a career-high 14th after beating Rafael Nadal on his way to the Shanghai semi-finals last week, lost eight straight games from 1-1 in the second. The Spaniard also lost 19 points in a row, including the first 13 of the final set.

Bellucci next plays Viktor Troicki, who reached his third quarterfinal since returning from a doping ban in July by beating fifth seed Lukas Rosol 6-3 6-2.

Elsewhere, Benjamin Becker defeated last year's finalist Robin Haase 6-3 6-3, winning six straight games to lead by a set and 2-0. He lined up a quarter-final against fellow German Philipp Kohlschreiber.

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