A piece of him may be yearning for home - or a Miami beach - but there are three (we hope) matches left yet for Andy Murray to bring his year of plenty to a scintillating end.

One of those will have nothing riding on it but pride, a sackful of pounds and the desire to win for a fourth time against Roger Federer, for the British No1 has already qualified for the Masters Cup semi finals. The last two matches this weekend present a bewildering opportunity.

The levels of intensity Murray brought to his second round robin victory - this time it was Gilles Simon of France who felt the Scot's force of will - were measured in both the standard of his play when he was on top, and the salty language he used when things were not going quite his way. That Murray wants to win this prestige trophy was evident to all those watching him here and listening to his reactions at home.

If he occasionally overstepped the bounds of what some may feel is inappropriate, it is because his Murray's inability to play the perfect tennis point every point he plays gets under his skin. He cannot keep the lid on.

Much of his play against Simon, whom he defeated 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 33 minutes was replete with joyous shot-making, beautiful use of the court's dimensions and such fierce focus that Simon appeared to have given up the ghost long before he flunked his last forehand.

It must be murder playing Murray for he gives the opposition nothing - well not much. He could have been utterly out of sight had he put away an overhead on top of the net when he was a point from leading 5-1 in the opening set. Simon, having been given the hint of a reprieve, won three games in a row which would have been four had he not missed with a dolly of a second service return on the first of two break points at 4-3. An thundering ace down the middle on the subsequent point hardly helped his mood. Murray held there, thumped in another couple of service winners with the set in his sights and moved in front after 54 minutes.

The crux of the match arrived in the second game of second set when Murray preserved serve after Simon had had three chances to break him. A forehand drop shot on one, a splendid volley on another, this was thus year's US Open finalist demonstrating again his ability to dig himself out of difficult situations by playing shots that few other players would dream of attempting. By now, Simon was screaming at himself in vocabulary every bit as rich as Murray's in the opening set.

The Frenchman, who was guaranteed a place in the tournament only when Rafael Nadal, the world No.1 withdrew with tendinitis in his right knee, lost his next two service games, Murray had effectively finished him off as a fighting force and was into the semi finals at his first attempt at this tournament.

Andy Roddick, whom Murray had beaten in his opening match, pulled out of the event with an ankle injury caused by a poor landing when serving in practice on Tuesday. Radek Stepanek, of the Czech Republic, No.27 in the race but who said Yes to the invitation that a lot of other players turned down, replaced Roddick, earning $100,000 in the process and the chance to enjoy a lot more.