Britain's Johanna Konta and Czech Petra Kvitova secured the last two semifinal slots in the $2.2 million WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, China, Friday. Top seed Konta, who will be the first Briton to finish a WTA season in the top 10 since 1983, disposed of France's Caroline Garcia 6-2, 6-2. The 25-year-old, who won her first WTA title at the Stanford Classic earlier this year and reached the China Open final in Beijing last month, only lost 10 points on her own serve. In an all-Czech showdown, third seed Kvitova beat compatriot Barbora Strycova — with whom she will team up in next week's Fed Cup — 6-1, 6-4 to qualify for the next stage. Russian Elena Vesnina and Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands were facing off later in the final match of the round-robin section of the tournament, but neither could reach the semifinals. Murray puts pressure on No. 1 Djokovic Murray stepped up his assault on Novak Djokovic's world No. 1 ranking by thrashing Lucas Pouille to ease into the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters Thursday. Murray reeled off the final eight games as he dispatched French 13th seed Pouille 6-3, 6-0 to extend his winning streak to 17 matches. "I thought I returned well today. I had chances in almost all of his service games throughout the match. And on this surface, obviously when it's a bit quicker, that's good," said Murray. Murray will next meet Tomas Berdych who beat Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-3, as he bids to end long-time rival Djokovic's 122-week run at the top of the rankings. The Scot has won three straight tournaments — in Beijing, Shanghai and Vienna — to drastically close the gap on Djokovic and must at least reach the final in Paris to stand a chance of displacing the Serb. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga kept his faint London hopes flickering though by saving two match points in a dramatic 0-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) win over Japan's Kei Nishikori. The 2008 Paris champion must land another title in the French capital to have a shot at returning to the Tour finals for the first time since 2012. He goes on to play Milos Raonic after the Canadian beat Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas to advance 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. — Agencies
