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Murray motors into Shanghai quarters

Andy Murray will face Radek Stepanek in the quarter-finals © PA Photos

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Andy Murray made an assured start to the defence of his Shanghai Masters title with a straight sets victory over Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Murray, who had free passage into the third round by virtue of a first-round bye and a walkover from Florian Mayer, soon found his rhythm as he secured a 6-2 6-2 victory to move into the quarter-finals.

The Scot appeared to be suffering with a cold as he coughed and spluttered during the match, but it did not slow him down as he secured a routine win against the tricky Ukrainian.

Dolgopolov attempted to use a variety of shots to trouble the world No. 3, but Murray never allowed his opponent to dictate play as he dominated the match from the outset.

The Brit suffered a brief wobble early in the second set - after breaking for a 2-1 lead, some sloppy play saw him drop his subsequent service game, but he quickly recovered, winning the next four games to wrap up a convincing win.

"When you play against him I think it's very important that you need to play a solid match but it's very important to play variety," Murray, who has never lost to Dolgopolov in four matches, told Sky Sports.

"Normally his game style gives guys problems if you keep playing the same ball over and over and he's the one chipping balls, hitting some flat balls, higher [balls], coming to the net, using drop shots... so I tried to use the slice a little bit, some higher balls and some off-pace balls so that he didn't have the rhythm to play his normal game."

The US Open champion will now face Radek Stepanek in the last eight after the Czech veteran continued his impressive run of form with victory over John Isner. Stepanek, who knocked out Lleyton Hewitt and Richard Gasquet in his opening two matches, did not drop his serve as he claimed a 6-4 6-7(5) 6-3 victory, in spite of 17 aces from Isner.

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