MADRID, Oct 20: World No 4 Andy Murray cruised to his second successive Masters Series title by blasting France’s Gilles Simon out of the Madrid Masters 6-4, 7-6 on Sunday.

Neither player matched the heroics of Saturday’s semi-finals w hen the Scot beat Roger Federer and Simon defeated Rafael Nadal, and in an attritional baseline battle, Murray’s rock-solid serve gave the tired Frenchman few chances.

The 21-year-old Briton struck 10 aces to just one in reply from world No 16 Simon, who failed to manufacture one break point on Murray’s service in a match lasting 93 minutes.

The 23-year-old from Nice had played for almost 12 hours in the five previous rounds — double his opponent’s court time — and Murray seemed happy to wait for a tired Simon to make the mistake as the two traded baseline blows in rallies often lasting 20 shots or more.

The first set turned in the sixth game when Murray put the pressure on Simon’s serve before forcing the Frenchman into a mishit drive. The shot was symptomatic of Simon’s match as his powerful forehand, so effective in a 3-1/2 hour epic against No 1 Nadal, failed to fire.

Murray slapped down four aces to close out the first set, and although Simon pressed harder in the second, he never once went to deuce on the Scot’s towering service.

Only when the set went to a tiebreak did Simon threaten.

Murray hit a drop shot but Simon successfully chased it down and clubbed a cross court winner for a 6-4 lead. Again Murray played the drop shot but the Scot escaped as Simon’s reply landed just wide.

A thumping winner off a tame Simon serve brought up championship point which he converted after Simon dumped a volley into the net.

Murray, who won the previous Masters Series tournament in Cincinnati in August, became the first Briton to win two Masters Series titles.

Simon moved to within one place of the eight-man Masters Cup tournament in Shanghai next month, with the Paris Masters at the end of the month his best chance of stealing Juan Martin del Potro’s eighth spot.

VENUS VICTORIOUS

ZURICH: Venus Williams defeated unseeded Italian Flavia Pennetta 7-6, 6-2 in Sunday’s Zurich Open final to all but guarantee the American a place at the season-ending WTA Championships in Doha.

Third seed Williams, who had lost her last three meetings with Pennetta, took full control of their latest encounter after rampaging through the first set tiebreak 7-1.

Sunday’s victory will lift Williams comfortably clear of rivals Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska in the race for the last two Doha qualifying spots when the latest standings are published on Monday.

Radwanska, in the worst position of the trio, will now have to win both the remaining tournaments in Linz and Quebec, where she is not currently entered, to deny Williams a place at the finale.

Chasing only her second title of the year, following her latest Wimbledon victory in July, Williams was made to work hard during Sunday’s opening stages with neither player offering up a single break point during the first set.

The subsequent tiebreak proved surprisingly one-sided, however, with Williams storming into a 6-0 lead after forcing two early errors from her opponent with a couple of powerful groundstrokes directly to Pennetta’s feet.

After losing the tiebreak, Pennetta could find no way back.

Dropping her serve for the first time in the third game of the second set, she then had to watch as Williams fired in four straight aces to lead 3-1.

Following a further break of the Italian’s serve, Williams was denied her first chance to wrap up the match when a Pennetta backhand on match point which looked long was controversially ruled in.

Williams kept her cool, hitting a fierce winner to the corner of the court before producing a final service winner.

Pennetta had been looking to become the third woman to win four consecutive matches against Williams, a feat so far managed only by Lindsay Davenport and Williams’s younger sister Serena.

Pennetta is also now on course for an invite to Doha as one of the alternates kept on standby in case of injury to any of the top eight.—Reuters