ANDY Murray is looking forward to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London after being knocked out of the Paris Masters by Radek Stepanek.
The Scot showed the after- effects of a late night as he went down 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the third round to the Czech.
After finishing off his second-round match with James Blake shortly before 2am on Thursday morning, the 22-year-old Scot returned to
the court 14 hours later to face Stepanek, an opponent he had beaten on each of their three previous meetings.
And the world No 4 admitted a rest will do him good ahead of the finals at the 02 Arena after returning to action with victory in Valencia following a six-week injury lay-off.
"Obviously to win a tournament after that long out was great. I wanted to try and play as many matches as possible," he said. "I would have signed up for playing seven matches and winning six of them before these couple of tournaments, and it was kind of just what I needed before London.
"I get nine days' rest to get rid of all the niggles and stiffness. I'll be feeling good going in there, I'm sure, a lot better than I would have been if I had gone out early both weeks."
Fourth-seed Murray raced through the opening set, but Stepanek found his rhythm with his serve and the Scot could not summon the energy for a fightback. Murray conceded a break point in the second game of the second set and Stepanek took his opportunity before holding serve for the second time in the set to go 3-0 up. Murray recovered his composure, but Stepanek's serve was beginning to fire as he consolidated his advantage, taking a 5-3 lead before holding serve to level the contest. It was the first time he had taken a set off the Scot in three meetings.
Stepanek opened the third set with a break of serve and a Murray double fault in the seventh game gave his opponent a double break and the opportunity to serve out the match. But Murray broke back to delay the final verdict and then made Stepanek serve again. Murray saved the first of three match points before Stepanek sealed his quarter-final place against Juan Martin Del Potro.
And it only got better for Stepanek yesterday. He was able to conserve precious energy after US Open champion Del Potro retired from the match when trailing 4-0 because of a groin injury from his previous match.
Stepanek will now face Gael Monfils who gave French fans hope of another home champion by reaching his first Paris semi-final in defeating Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
On the other side of the Bercy draw, Rafael Nadal silenced a partisan crowd by knocking out local favourite and title holder Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-5 with an impressive performance yesterday to reach the semi-finals.
World No 2 Nadal will meet Novak Djokovic for a place in tomorrow's final.
The Serbian world No 3 earlier ruined Robin Soderling's hopes of making those World Tour Finals in London by beating the Swede 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Spaniard Nadal, who still has an outside chance of finishing the year as No1, had the crowd against him and faced a strong challenge from the powerful Tsonga, who loves fast indoor courts. But he had more composure when it mattered.
"I played a lot better today," said Nadal, who struggled in his previous two matches, saving five match points in the first. "I was really focused all the time."
