Andy Murray stepped up a gear from his first-round match to beat Swiss qualifier Marco Chiudinelli and reach the Dubai Championships quarter-finals.
The British number one, seeded third, need one hour and 23 minutes to win 6-3 6-4 against the world number 185.
Murray will play Czech fifth seed Tomas Berdych or Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko in the quarter-finals.
World number one Novak Djokovic and second seed Roger Federer are among those in action later on Wednesday.
Murray had laboured to overcome German qualifier Michael Berrer in the first round on Tuesday in his first match since losing to Djokovic at the Australian Open last month.
The Scot, 24, has struggled in the last two years to get over defeats in Australia, but there were encouraging signs in his routine dismissal of 30-year-old Chiudinelli.
Murray broke serve for the first time in game four with a sharp backhand to Chiudinelli's feet and saw out the set comfortably, winning over 80% of the points behind both first and second serves.
There was a slight dip in that area of his game early in the second set but he maintained the pressure on Chiudinelli's serve, and went close to breaking in the first and seventh games before making the decisive move at 4-4.
Forehand and backhand winners helped Murray to the break and he closed out the victory with little fuss to become the first man through to the last eight.
29 February 2012
Last updated at 11:52
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/17204163
No comments:
Post a Comment