Top seed Andy Murray continued his quest for World No. 1 on Thursday at the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna, weathering a marathon match against Gilles Simon to move into the quarter-finals, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.

“It was a very long match, but I expected it to be very hard because it’s just that way against Gilles. You play a lot of long points. You feel like the harder you hit the ball, the harder it comes back,” said Murray. “You just have to try to use some variety, some slice and drop shots, and find that balance to get him out of his rhythm.”

Murray started out slowly by dropping his first two service games and trailing 5-2. Although he managed to break Simon and bring the opening set back on serve, the Frenchman broke him again at 5-4 to grab the lead.

Although the second and third sets appeared to be routine on paper for Murray, he was forced to win extended rallies in most points and endured three long deuce games in each set. At 2-2 in the final set, the Brit finally wore his opponent down and cruised through the last four games to prevail in two hours and 41 minutes.

Next up for Murray is big-serving John Isner. The Brit has dominated their FedEx ATP Head2Head 6-0, although two of those matches have gone to a deciding set. 

Viktor Troicki caused the first upset of the day with his second-round win over third seed Dominic Thiem, 6-2, 7-5. With Thiem’s loss, Gael Monfils has now officially qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Troicki didn’t drop serve once and displayed outstanding resilience in the second set by saving all seven break points against him. He only needed a single break point opportunity at 5-5 in the second set and comfortably closed out the match on his serve in the next game.

Troicki has enjoyed success in Vienna by coming through qualifying to reach the semi-finals in 2014. The Serbian improved his FedEx ATP Head2Head over Thiem to 2-0 and recorded his second Top 10 victory this month, having ousted Rafael Nadal two weeks ago at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.

Awaiting him in the quarter-finals is fifth seed David Ferrer, a 6-2, 7-6(4) winner over Joao Sousa. Ferrer leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Troicki 3-1, but they haven’t faced each other in more than two years. 

Former champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga recovered from a 2-4 deficit in the first set to beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6(6), 6-2 in 89 minutes for a place in the quarter-finals. Tsonga, the 2011 titlist, now has a 10-1 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Kohlschreiber. He will next meet Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who fought back from a set and 0-2 deficit to knock out 2009 and 2010 champion Jurgen Melzer 3-6, 6-4, 6-0.

DAY 5 PREVIEW: An outstanding quarter-final line-up on Friday at the Erste Bank Open 500 features top seed and World No. 2 Andy Murray, reigning champion/No. 5 David Ferrer, No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and No. 8 Ivo Karlovic, who leads the ATP World Tour this season in aces.

In the opening match on Centre Court, Karlovic takes on #NextGen Russian star Karen Khachanov for the second time. The big-serving Croat, who is appearing in his eighth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season, won the previous meeting 64 60 in the quarter-finals of Moscow in 2013. Khachanov was 17 years old at the time and ranked No. 808 (making his ATP World Tour QF debut) while Karlovic was No. 86. Karlovic, a two-time title winner this season, leads the ATP World Tour with 1,052 aces, just ahead of Isner (1,046). Earlier this month Khachanov captured his maiden ATP World Tour title in Chengdu (d. Ramos-Vinolas). He is making his third ATP World Tour quarter-final showing of the year.

In the next match on, Tsonga brings in a 4-0 head-to-head record against Albert Ramos-Vinolas. This is their first indoor meeting. Tsonga, who won the Vienna title five years ago, is appearing in his eighth quarter-final of the season. The 31-year-old Frenchman is 2-5 in QF matches and he’s trying to reach his first final of the season. The 28-year-old Spaniard is putting together his best season on the ATP World Tour with a 33-29 match record (most wins) and personal-best No. 26 Emirates ATP Ranking this week. He captured his maiden ATP World Tour title in Bastad in July (d. Verdasco) and was runner-up in Chengdu (l. to Khachanov). He is 3-4 in QF matches.

In the last afternoon match, Serbian No. 2 Viktor Troicki takes on Ferrer, who owns a 3-1 head-to-head record. Troicki, who is making his seventh QF showing of the season, is No. 28 in the Emirates ATP Rankings and he is trying to finish in the Top 30 for the fifth time in his career. In the opening month of the season he won his third career ATP World Tour title in Sydney (d. Dimitrov). Ferrer, who is playing in his ninth QF of the season, is trying to reach his first ATP World Tour final in 2016 and keep alive a streak of 11 straight years with a final appearance.

In the evening session, Murray takes a 6-0 head-to-head record against No. 2 American John Isner. Murray has won 16 of the previous 19 sets and is 6-2 in tie-breaks. Murray comes in with a 12-match winning streak after sweeping Chinese titles without dropping a set (20-0) in Beijing and ATP Masters 1000 Shanghai. Murray leads the ATP World Tour with 67 match wins this season and his six titles is second-most behind Novak Djokovic (seven), who is trying to hold off the Briton and finish No. 1 for the third straight year and fifth time overall. Murray trails by 1,415 points in the Emirates ATP Rankings but Djokovic still has 2,300 points to defend while Murray has 1,075 dropping off. Isner, who is No. 2 in aces this year (1,046), is looking to break a five-match losing streak vs. Top 10 opponents. His last win came over No. 2 Federer in the 3R at ATP Masters 1000 Paris last November.

In the final match, a doubles quarter-final features No. 2 seeds Bob and Mike Bryan against Pablo Cuevas and Troicki. The Bryans already have qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. The Bryans are one win away from becoming the first team in the Open Era with 1,000 match wins (999-309).

Indian players take up 18 of the 32 main draw spots at this week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Pune, but the youngest player competing in drew plenty of headlines locally for his milestone win.

Sixteen-year-old Dhruv Sunish made the most of his wild card with an opening-round victory over fellow Indian Siddharth Vishwakarma, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. The win gave Sunish, competing in only the fourth pro event of his career, his first ATP Challenger Tour win.

The teenager showed plenty of fighting spirit in his second-round loss on Wednesday to top seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia. Despite the loss, Sunish said he was grateful to see how he stacked up against an experienced player.

“Playing against Donskoy was an experience that’s unmatched for me. The level of tennis is completely different,” said Sunish. “It’s been a great experience for me this week to play and practise alongside some of the best players in my country and the world.”

Sunish has primariy focused on playing junior events in India this year. But after watching staple Challenger players train and compete this week, he’s gained a clearer understanding of what he will need to improve on moving forward.

“I think the main difference between junior and pro players is physical strength,” said Sunish. “They also have a much higher mental strength because every match has to be played at such a high intensity.”

With the Emirates ATP Rankings points gained from winning a round in Pune, Sunish will now look to focus on playing more pro events and build on the momentum from this week. But at just 16 years old, Sunish is hopeful he’ll return to Pune for many years to come.

“This is one of the best organised tournaments I’ve ever played,” he said. “I would love to come back and play here again.”

Gael Monfils will make his debut at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after becoming the sixth player to qualify for the prestigious season-ending tournament, to be held from 13-20 November at The O2 in London.

The Frenchman joins Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori in the elite field, securing his berth following Dominic Thiem’s loss today at the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna. Thiem is looking to join Monfils as debutants at the prestigious season finale and currently sits in the eighth position in the Emirates ATP Race To London.

“It feels great to qualify for the (Barclays) ATP (World Tour) Finals for the first time in my career,” said Monfils. “It is a great way to finish my best season on the tour and I look forward to competing against the other best players of 2016. I heard a lot of great things about the event, every match is like a final and I always love to play on a big stage.”

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It has been a career-best season for the 30-year-old Monfils. He opened his campaign with a quarter-final showing at the Australian Open (l. to Raonic) and finished runner-up at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam the following month (l. to Klizan). Back-to-back quarter-finals at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the Sony Open in Miami then preceded a run to the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters final (l. to Nadal).

Injury forced Monfils to miss Roland Garros, but the right-hander returned to top form over the summer, winning the biggest title of his career at the Citi Open in Washington (d. Karlovic) before reaching the semi-finals at the Rogers Cup in Toronto and the US Open, both times falling to Djokovic. Earlier this month, he reached the semi-finals at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016 in Tokyo (l. to Kyrgios).

Two singles and two doubles spots remain up for grabs with less than two weeks remaining in the regular ATP World Tour season. Earlier today, Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram clinched their place at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the first time. The South African-American duo will join Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez, and Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo in the English capital.

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals has welcomed more than 1.8 million fans to The O2 arena over the past seven years, establishing itself as the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world since moving to London in 2009. A record 102 million broadcast viewers also tuned in across the eight days of competition in 2015. The ATP announced last year that the event would remain at The O2 through to 2018. Tickets can be purchased at: www.BarclaysATPWorldTourFinals.com.

Norbert Gombos was already eliminated in last week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Brest, France, before main draw action even began. But with the help of a withdrawal, the Slovakian made an improbable run from Lucky Loser to tournament champion.

When #NextGen star Quentin Halys was unable to take the court, the 26-year-old Gombos took his place in the draw and found his top form. He defeated fellow Slovakian and second seed Lukas Lacko in a third-set tie-break in the quarter-finals, then prevailed over Yannik Reuter of Belgium in the championship match to win the biggest Challenger title of his career.

“I was disappointed I couldn’t make it into the main draw there after a good run in Asia, but thankfully Quentin could not make it. I knew I had another chance and didn’t want to miss it,” said Gombos. “I played my best match in the final and was really happy with that. I had a really hard year with my surgery, so this victory meant a lot to me.”

But after briefly soaking in the win for a few moments, Gombos immediately had to refocus and set his sights on this week’s $75,000 Challenger in Budapest, Hungary. He prevailed in his opening match on Wednesday night over Hungarian wild card Peter Nagy before falling to seventh seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

“I couldn’t have a big celebration because I had to travel to Budapest,” said Gombos. “But me and my coach went out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, had a bit to drink and lots of great food.”

After a difficult season due to injury, Gombos has turned his season around over the past two months. He’s posted a 17-6 record in Challengers since the end of August, which includes a runner-up finish in Orleans, France, and semi-final showings in Izmir, Turkey and Bangkok, Thailand.

Despite the early loss in Budapest, Gombos said he was impressed by what the tournament had to offer in its debut year.

“We have everything in one place, which is nice,” said Gombos. “The hotel is walking distance from the tournament and the court are great too.”

Roger Federer has been named the top athlete brand in the Forbes Fab 40, the world’s most valuable sports brands.

The Swiss superstar has a brand value of $37 million a year, the amount by which endorsement income exceeds the average endorsement income earned by the Top 10 earning athletes in the same sport during the past year.

Federer’s brand value is greater than NBA basketball player LeBron James ($34 million), golfer Phil Mickelson ($28 million), sprinter Usain Bolt ($25 million), golfer Tiger Woods ($23 million) and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo ($19 million).

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Last month, the 35-year-old Federer was ranked No. 4 with $67.8 million in the The World’s Highest-Paid Athletes 2016 list compiled by Forbes. The Basel native’s commercial partners include Nike, Wilson, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Credit Suisse and Moët & Chandon.

Federer will return to the ATP World Tour at the start of the 2017 season.

Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi remain on track to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after beating local wild cards Antoine Bellier and Marco Chiudinelli 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors Basel on Wednesday. Huey/Mirnyi are currently No. 8 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London. There are three more berths up for grabs for the year-end showdown.

No. 2 seeds Nicolas Mahut, who is already qualified for London alongside usual partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert, and Edouard Roger-Vasselin beat Henri Kontinen and John Peers 6-4, 7-6(5). The Frenchmen landed 78 per cent of first serves and saved both break points faced.

Vienna: Bryans A Win Away From 1,000

Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan are within sight of a tremendous milestone. They notched their 999^th team win at tour-level with a 6-0, 6-1 rout of hometown favourites Dennis Novak and Dominic Thiem in the first round of the Erste Bank Open 500. The Bryans, seeded second, dropped only five points on serve and needed just 38 minutes to dispose of the Austrians.

Top seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares rallied to win 4-6, 7-5, 10-6 against John Isner and Scott Lipsky. Murray/Soares bore down in the Match Tie-break, winning all four second-serve return points to prevail in 82 minutes.

No. 3 seeds Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez, who are already qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, knocked out Austrian wild cards Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 7-6(5). Knowle was chasing his 400^th tour-level doubles win.