Andy Murray beats Julien Benneteau in Paris Masters

Murray won his third title in five weeks in Valencia on Sunday

Andy Murray moved to within one win of qualifying for the World Tour Finals with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Julien Benneteau at the Paris Masters.

The Briton, 27, who is fifth in the race to qualify for November's finals, outclassed his French opponent in 71 minutes to reach the third round.

He needs to reach the quarter-finals in France to clinch his place in London.

The Scot, who has won three titles in five weeks, will face Grigor Dimitrov - who beat Murray at Wimbledon - next.

The match will take place at around 13:00 GMT on Thursday and will be live on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra.

Bulgarian Dimitrov, who also has a chance to qualify for the season-ending tournament, thrashed Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas 6-0 6-3.

"I put in a lot of hard work the last few weeks, played a lot of tough, long matches," said Murray.

"If I get in to London I deserve to be there, because it's your results across the whole year. My results in most of the tournaments this year, most of the big tournaments, have been good enough to be in the top eight.

"I have won more matches than most of the players in the slams, maybe one or two other guys, Roger and Novak might be the only ones to have won more."

Murray opened with an emphatic love hold and was gifted an immediate break by three Benneteau double faults.

The world number eight cruised to 4-1, having dropped only one point on his own serve, and promptly wrapped up the set.

Murray broke serve again in the first game of the second set and, although the world number 28 broke his serve in the sixth game, he completed victory with a hold to love.

Federer is closing in on Novak Djokovic's world number one ranking

World number two Roger Federer, a winner last week in Basel, joined Murray in the last 16 thanks to a 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 win over Jeremy Chardy.

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

However, the 33-year-old Swiss claimed the deciding set to set up a third-round meeting with France's Lucas Pouille, who beat Italian 16th seed Fabio Fognini 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-6).

"It was a very, very difficult match," said Federer. "I had two match points in the second set and was a bit worried but I tried to keep coming forward and I'm very, very satisfied."

Canada's Milos Raonic spent over eight minutes searching for a suitable toilet before battling back to beat American Jack Sock 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7-4).

The number seven seed, who needs to win the tournament to guarantee his place in London, said: "Whoever the escort who took me was, took me into a bathroom that had no seats on the toilet.

"I didn't want to squat, so I kept saying, 'let's go to another one', and we ended up going to the locker room."

Stan Wawrinka, who like Federer and Djokovic has already qualified for the Tour Finals, won his first match in more than a month, beating Austrian Dominic Thiem 6-4 7-6 (8-6).

"I'm trying to find my confidence," said the 29-year-old Swiss. "I know my level of game is here. What I still miss is winning matches."

Fourth seed David Ferrer overcame Belgium's David Goffin, while fellow Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Roberto Bautista-Agut also progressed.

Japanese sixth seed Kei Nishikori - another in the running for World Tour Finals - beat Spanish veteran and Valencia Open runner-up Tommy Robredo 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 6-3.

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 10th seed,beat Austria's Jurgen Melzer 6-2 4-6 6-2 and fellow countryman Gael Monfils beat 13th-seeded American John Isner 6-4 7-6 (7-4).