Murray in a hurry at Paris Masters

PARIS: Andy Murray’s drive to Davis Cup glory got underway in earnest in Paris on Wednesday with a dominating 6-1, 6-2 win over Croatian youngster Borna Coric.
The Scot has made it clear that, with the end of the season in sight, his priority is to give Britain its first Davis Cup triumph since 1936 with a victory over Belgium on clay in Ghent later in the month.
But before then he has to negotiate the last two events of the ATP season, both on hardcourts, at the Paris Masters and the World Tour Finals in London.
It’s not an easy task with the punishing change of surfaces to handle, and it nearly floored Roger Federer at the same time last year before he and Swiss compatriot Stan Wawrinka finally saw off the French challenge in the final in Lille.
And the last thing Murray needs is a series of punishing three-setters to drain his batteries and niggle his ailing back.
Against teenager Coric, who had beaten the Scot for the loss of just four games the last time the pair met early this year in Dubai, that never looked likely to happen.
Murray, who has never got past the quarterfinals in the Paris Masters in eight previous appearances, took command from the start, winning the first three games.
Coric, the youngest player in the world top 50 — he turns 19 on Nov.14 — looked at a loss over what to do as Murray pulled him all over the court and the first set was surrendered in double-quick time.
The Croat opted to go on the offensive in the second set and he held firm until 2-2.
But Murray then stepped up the pace once again and he grabbed the break he needed in the following game.
He then raced away to reach the last 16 in just 59 minutes.
Next up for Murray, by a quirk of fate, is David Goffin, the slightly built Belgian No.1 who will be the main obstacle standing in his way in Ghent.
Kei Nishikori produced a storming final set to defeat home hope Jeremy Chardy 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (6/8), 6-1.
The 25-year-old Japanese world No.7 was a semifinalist in Paris last year, losing to eventual winner Novak Djokovic, and he has been in solid form this year with three title wins.
But he missed the Swiss Indoors tournament in Basel last week with a sore shoulder and he had his hands full in dealing with the big-serving Chardy.
Nishiori edged the opening tie-break and it looked like he could do the same in the second, only for Chardy to save two match points en route to leveling the score.
Asia’s top player and US Open runner-up last year, rebounded well in the third set, however, reeling off six straight games from 0-1 to claim victory in two hours and 26 minutes.
Nishikori goes on to face another Frenchman, 10th seed Richard Gasquet, who eased past Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-2, 7-5.
In other second round match-ups, Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov upset former US Open champion Marin Cilic of Croatia 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/2), and Belgian David Goffin was too good for Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, winning 6-2, 6-2.

Double bagel

In Hong Kong, Carla Suarez Navarro handed injury-hampered Andrea Petkovic the first 6-0, 6-0 “double bagel” of her top-level career on Wednesday in the simplest of wins at the WTA Elite Trophy.
The Spaniard was on court for just 51 minutes against Germany’s Petkovic, who was troubled by a knee problem. Petkovic won only 24 percent of points on her first serve and was broken six times.
Both players looked downcast as they came off the court and Suarez Navarro described it as a “sad” win, praising 24th-ranked Petkovic for not retiring from the match.
“I really appreciate the fight because she was on court all the time,” said the Spaniard, in comments released by the Women’s Tennis Association from the event in Zhuhai in southern China.
“She didn’t retire. She played not only for her — she played also for the fans, for me. You know, not a lot of players in the circuit will stay on court with the situation that Andrea was living today... was maybe a sad win for me.”
Earlier Roberta Vinci beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-4, and third seed Karolina Pliskova overcame former world number one Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
The Elite Trophy, which follows last week’s WTA Finals for the top eight women, is a new event featuring 12 players ranked below them and held at a purpose-built facility in Zhuhai.