Andy Murray plonks Gilles Simon to reach quarters – Sony Ericsson Open 2012
British number one, Andy Murray, eased past the French ace, Gilles Simon, in straight sets at the Sony Ericsson Open 2012, a Masters 1000 event taking place on the hard courts at Key Biscayne. He jolted down a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the 27-year-old to book a spot in the last eight on Tuesday.
Seeded fourth in this tournament, Murray proved his class and triumphed over the world number 13 in one hour and 46 minutes. After pocketing this match, the Scot not only extended his lead in the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head series by 9-1 against Simon but also secured a place in the quarter-finals.
"I felt fine from the start of the match," said the Scot in a post-match press conference. "Probably the first game probably helped with that, as well, because saved a couple of break points, there was a lot of long rallies, a lot of moving. After that, kind of loosened up a little bit; felt much better. So that first game, even though it was like 17, 18 minutes, was probably a good thing after not playing for a few days."
The Dunblane native assertively entered the Tennis Center at Crandon Park and after cashing in the lone break opportunity in the fourth game, he cruised to a 4-1 lead. He kept his entire serves after dusting away all three breakpoints he faced and sealed the opener with a 6-3 win.
Murray kept momentum rolling into the following set and held his serve in the second game to tie the scores at 1-1. He maintained his intensity and reeled off remaining serves without facing any blockage. The Scot got the breakthrough in the seventh game and ended the set with a 6-4 success.
Next in queue for the world number four is the ninth seed, Janko Tipsarevic, who overwhelmed early resilience posed by Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria. The Serbian number two raised the level of his game in the opening set tie-breaker and then carried his rhythm in the following set. He capitalised on both break opportunities to pull out the victory with a 7-6(3), 6-2 score line.
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