Wednesday 28 March 2012

Murray Makes Masters Progress


Andy Murray secured his place in the last eight of the Miami Masters with a 6-3 6-4 win over Frenchman Gilles Simon.

He got off to an inauspicious start and was forced to save three break points in the first game.

Eventually the fourth seed broke in the fourth game and it was enough to eventually take the first set.

The Scot stayed strong to set up a quarter-final meeting with ninth seedJanko Tipsarevic .

World number one Novak Djokovic is also through to the last eight after beating Frenchman Richard Gasquet 7-5 6-3.

The Serb was again forced to work, as he set up a meeting with the winner of Juan Martin Del Potro and David Ferrer , saving six of his seven break points.

He also only managed only 58% of his first serves in, lower than that of his 17th seed opponent.

Second seed Rafael Nadal is also through following a 6-4 6-4 win over Kei Nishikori of Japan.

The Spaniard will now face the winner of the match between sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Florian Mayer before a potential semi-final clash with Murray.

American Mardy Fish joins them in the last eight after beating Nicolas Almagro 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 6-3.

In the women's draw second seed Maria Sharapova made easy work of beating eighth seed Li Na, winning 6-3 6-0.

The Russian needed just 68 minutes to overcome the 2011 French Open winner, winning 58 of the 88 points played.