Madrid: Defending champion Andy Murray sealed his place in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Masters on Thursday with a 6-4, 6-2 win over 16th seed Gilles Simon.
Murray will face Thomas Berdych or David Ferrer in the last eight on Friday.
“After the first six or seven games I really started to hit the ball well,” said Murray.
“I served well throughout the match. It was a good performance.”
The two-time Grand Slam champion extends his impressive record over Simon to 14-2, but wasn’t pushed as hard as he often has been in the past by the Frenchman as he didn’t even face a break point in just over an hour-and-a-half on court. Murray pounced on a series of Simon errors to seal the only break of the first set in the final game.
However, the Scot was far more dominant in the second as his power and variation from the back of the court allowed him to race into a 3-0 lead before breaking again to seal his place in the last eight.
“Normally against Gilles it’s always a complicated match because of the way he plays,” added Murray. “He always makes it very difficult. There are a lot of long rallies, but because of the conditions, it was a bit faster, I was able to get a lot more free points on my serve.”
Rafael Nadal, who could meet Murray in a repeat of last year’s final, continues his quest for a fifth title in Madrid when he faces American Sam Querrey later on Thursday. World number one Novak Djokovic is also in action when he takes on Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut.
Djokovic had eased into the third round by beating Borna Coric 6-2, 6-4 here.
Djokovic, who had not played in Madrid since 2013, served four double faults but relied on his return to overpower Coric on Tuesday.
Sam Querrey of the United States defeated Lucas Pouille of France 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 and eighth-seeded Tomas Berdych beat Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-3.
In the women’s section, American qualifier Louisa Chirico continued her fairytale run to reach the semifinals.
The 20-year-old Chirico, ranked 130 in the world, beat Australian Daria Gavrilova 7-6 (7/1), 6-2 to reach her first ever WTA semifinal where she will face the winner of the quarterfinal between Dominika Cibulkova and Sorana Cirstea.
