Murray was beaten in the quarter finals of last week's China Open
Andy Murray will face Chinese qualifier Bai Yan when he begins his Shanghai Masters challenge on Wednesday.
Wildcard Yan, ranked 465th in the world, upset Radek Stepanek 6-3 6-4 in the first round. Murray, who crashed out of the China Open to Ivan Ljubicic last week, had been hampered by a stomach bug.
But a semi-final appearance in Shanghai should be enough to result in Murray qualifying for next month's World Tour finals at the O2 Arena in London.
Yan, still delighted by his straight sets win over world number 30, Stepanek, is looking to learn from Murray, who he concedes is the overwhelming favourite to win through to the third round.
"It's my first time in a top level tournament, so it's really an unexpected performance for me," said Yan.
"I have some pressure because this is my home country," the 21-year-old added. "Murray is a very talented player - much better than me. I hope to learn from him in our match."
Meanwhile, Murray is focused on progressing to at least the semi-finals in Shanghai. "My goal is to qualify for London, and then obviously I want to try and improve on some things," he stated.
"There's only one or two ways to improve things: you need to practise it a lot on the practice court and then you need to try and do it when you're out on the match court. I really enjoyed playing in London last year. That's what I've got to try to do the next few tournaments."
The world's top four are all in action in Shanghai on Wednesday with world number one Rafael Nadal facing Stanislas Wawrinka, number two seed, Novak Djokovic, up against Ivan Ljubicic and third seed Roger Federer playing John Isner.
Murray and Yan are due on court after Djokovic vs Ljubicic, which starts at 0700 BST.
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