Murray eases into Miami quarters

Andy Murray made brutally short work of Viktor Troicki with a 6-1 6-0 thrashing to progress to the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

The Scot dominated the opener with his opponent claiming his final service game to narrowly avoid a whitewash.

With his serve malfunctioning badly, Troicki was further humiliated in the second set and failed to win a game.

Murray will now face his Australian Open conqueror Fernando Verdasco, who beat Czech Radek Stepanek 6-2 6-2.

Murray said: "I played well. I concentrated hard and got my tactics spot on. It's nice to get off the court quickly.

"He didn't hit his first serve particularly well and I took confidence from my good start because I hadn't started that well in my last couple of matches."

Regarding a possible match-up with Verdasco, Murray said: "It's not like I'd be going for revenge or whatever, it's just another match. He's obviously played well this year but Stepanek's been playing really well, too."

The 23-year-old Troicki is at a career-high world ranking of 41 and is set to climb higher following his run in Florida, but he was extremely poor against Murray, who had won their only previous meeting.

Murray had started slowly in his second and third-round matches but he broke Troicki's first service game and secured a second successive break with two fine returns to move into a 4-0 lead.

The Scot had two points to complete a love set, but Troicki who only got 25% of his serves in in the opening set, came up with some big serves to finally get on the board after 27 minutes.

It was only a temporary reprieve, however, as Murray easily served out the set and breezed through the second to finish the match in under an hour.

Rafael Nadal had a much tougher time, requiring two tie-breaks to outlast Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 7-6, while Roger Federer enjoyed a comfortable 6-3 6-2 win over American qualifier Taylor Dent.

Nadal and his Swiss opponent slugged it out for two hours and 43 minutes in the match of the tournament to date, with both players displaying high levels of determination and quality. The Spaniard now plays Juan Martin del Potro.

Serbian third seed Novak Djokovic, who won the Miami crown in 2007, cruised to a 6-3 6-2 victory over Tomas Berdych. The Czech was broken five times and lost 15 of 24 points on his second serve.

Djokovic will next face French 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga , who came from behind to eliminate seventh-seeded countryman Gilles Simon 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 6-2.

Tsonga, who felt slightly ill before the match, is the first Frenchman in a decade to reach the quarter-finals at Miami, and Djokovic knows he is in for a fight.

"I lost to Tsonga four times in a row, so he has a little advantage probably there," Djokovic said. "But I think all the matches we played were very close so it's going to be a challenge for me to win."

American fifth seed Andy Roddick beat French ninth seed Gael Monfils 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 to set up a last eight encounter with world number two Federer.

Eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova became the first semi-finalist in the women's draw by beating Danish 13th seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-7 (5-7), 6-1.

Next for Kuznetsova will be fellow Russian Victoria Azarenka, the 11th seed thrashing Samantha Stosur 6-1 6-0.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk

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