Murray Stays Alive in Masters Cup Race with ATP St. Pete Title

Murray had previously beaten the Spaniard in their only meeting at the start of the season at the Australian Open. Entering next week's Masters Series-Paris, he trails No. 8-ranked Tommy Haas by just three points on the ATP Race standings.

"I'm definitely very happy about winning this tournament," Murray said. "Now I'm only three points behind the No. 8 player in the Race. I still have a chance of qualifying to Shanghai [Masters Cup]. I didn't expect to be in this position after missing nearly four months out of the season."

Murray improved to 2-2 in career finals.
 
A wrist injury suffered at Hamburg caused Murray to miss three months during the summer, but he has since reaching the Metz final and the third round at the Masters Series-Madrid where he lost to Rafael Nadal.

Verdasco was appearing in his first final of the year, and falls to 1-3 in career finals.

"I lost my confidence in the beginning of the match," the Spaniard said. "I was playing aggressively but making lots of mistakes. It was not easy to regain the confidence during the match. Andy likes to play against players who attack him. He is very good in defending and today he didn't give me many chances."

Top seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic clinched their second ATP title together in the doubles final with victory over No. 4 seeds Austrian Jurgen Melzer and Australian Todd Perry 6-1, 7-6(3).

"We got off a slow start as a pair but we improved in the last couple weeks and we leave St. Petersburg with the title," said Nestor, who began teaming with Zimonjic after the US Open. "I think we are stepping in the right direction as a team. The crowd was great all week and today we played in front of one of the biggest crowds of the season."