Ruthless Andy Murray on track for No.1 ranking

Andy Murray stepped up his assault on Novak Djokovic’s World No. 1 ranking by thrashing Lucas Pouille to ease into quarters of the Paris Masters on Thursday

Andy Murray

Paris: Andy Murray stepped up his assault on Novak Djokovic’s World No. 1 ranking by thrashing Lucas Pouille to ease into quarters of the Paris Masters on Thursday.

Murray reeled off the final eight games as he dispatched French 13th seed Pouille 6-3, 6-0 to extend his winning streak to 17 matches.

“I thought I returned well today. I had chances in almost all of his service games throughout the match. And on this surface, obviously when it’s a bit quicker, that’s good,” said Murray. “I felt tired (this morning) because it was a late finish (from Wednesday night when Murray defeated Fernando Verdasco) but I felt all right once I got going,” added the second seed.

The Scot has won three straight tournaments — in Beijing, Shanghai and Vienna -- to drastically close the gap on Djokovic and must at least reach the final in Paris to stand a chance of displacing the Serb.

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