By Bill Scott Aug 16, 2009, 1:48 GMT
Montreal - Andy Murray split the difference between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as the Scot shot into the number two ATP ranking with his defeat of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) for a finals place at the Montreal Masters Saturday.
Murray will face a tough test Sunday when he plays Argentine Juan Del Potro, who stopped Andy Roddick for the second time in less than a week with a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory highlighted by 19 aces.
'I'm so happy to be in another final,' said the Argentine, ranked sixth, who beat Roddick in last weekend's Washington final. 'It's a great sensation. Andy and I are both very strong on serve. I just played better than him in the important moments.'
Del Potro fought back in the tenth game of the third set to hold form 0-30, saving a Roddick match point and finishing with a pair of aces for 5-all.
The Argentine then broke for 6-5 on the American's double-fault and served out the tight victory after two hours, six minutes a game later on his second opportunity.
Murray's victory means the 23-year-old Scot will stand second in Monday's ATP list behind Federer. Nadal, who missed two and a half months as he rested injured knees, was bumped down to third.
'I played consistently well this year, so bar winning a Slam, I've done enough to justify being number two and getting closer to hopefully one day becoming number one - it's one of my goals,' said Murray.
'I've put in a lot of hard work to get to this stage, and I keep working hard to go one step farther.'
'In terms of rankings it's the biggest step that I've made so far,' said Murray, who is bidding for a fifth title of the season.
Nadal, beaten in the Montreal quarter-finals Friday by Del Potro, took over number one from Federer last August before the Beijing Olympics but lost it after being beaten in the French Open fourth round by Robin Soderling.
'Andy's a very good player and it's tough to go to the net every time against him,' said Tsonga. 'But that's fine, I'm okay with that.'
Murray's move will mark the first time in four years that someone other than Federer or Nadal has entered the top two on the ranking list.
Australian Lleyton Hewitt moved to second behind Federer in July 2005 for a brief period.
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