Roger Federer kept up his hopes of finishing the year as world number one when he downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 7-6 6-7 6-4 in the second round of the Paris Masters yesterday.

The world number two, who has a chance of leapfrogging Novak Djokovic at the top of the rankings and equalling Pete Sampras’s record of ending six seasons as the number one, knew Chardy would be a tough nut to crack and he didn’t disappoint at Bercy.

Chardy, who beat Federer in their previous encounter at the Rome Masters earlier this year, saved two match points in the second set.

The second-seeded Swiss however claimed the deciding set in more comfortable fashion to set up a third-round meeting with France’s Lucas Pouille or Italian Fabio Fognini.

It went much more smoothly for eighth seed Andy Murray who is within one match of securing his place in the ATP World Tour Finals next month after easing past local favourite Julien Benne-teau 6-3 6-4.

The Scot, who needs to reach the last eight to book his ticket to the Nov. 9-16 Finals in London, next meets ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov.

Bulgarian Dimitrov, who also has a chance to qualify for the season-ending tournament, des-troyed Pablo Cuevas 6-0 6-3.

“He gave me a good start,” Murray told reporters.

“He served three double faults in a row in his first service game. I served very well in the first set. There were no really long or physical rallies at all in the first set.”

After dropping outside the top 10 following his US Open quarter-final exit, Murray began a late push for a spot in the London showpiece event which features the best eight players this season.

Murray has won titles in Valencia, Vienna and Shenzhen and he appeared in great form again yesterday when he was rarely threatened by Benneteau.

Earlier, third-seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka won for the first time in more than a month as he beat Austrian wunderkind Do-minic Thiem 6-4 7-6.

Wawrinka, who has already qualified for the Tour Finals, lacked consistency but prevailed on the important points, relying on his superb backhand.

The Swiss lost his first match at the previous three tournaments he entered.

Milos Raonic, of Canada, kept his London challenge alive with a 6-3 5-7 7-6 win over American qualifier Jack Sock.

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