• Madrid Masters

Murray back to his best in defeat of Hanescu

Andy Murray is returning to form ahead of the French Open © Getty Images

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Andy Murray reached his first quarter-final since March by overcoming Victor Hanescu in the third round of the Madrid Masters.

The world No. 4 looked to have returned to something approaching his best form as he shrugged off his opponent's strong start to triumph 6-2 6-1 in 69 minutes.

The win continues Murray's renaissance, which comes at a useful stage with the French Open just around the corner.

He has now won three of his last four games on clay - prior to that sequence, he had suffered two successive opening-round exits.

After that underwhelming run, it was cheering to see Murray so dominant against Chela in his first game in Madrid. The No. 4 seed displayed decisive shotmaking and a fluency of movement, two aspects of his game that had looked beyond his grasp in some of the year's earlier tournaments.

Hanescu, who has reached one final on clay already this year, looked set to test just how stable Murray's recovery was - although he was well beaten the one previous occasion that the players met, last year in Monaco.

Early in the first set, it was Hanescu who was shading a closely-fought contest - he picked up break points in Murray's early service games, although he was unable to convert. The Scot made him pay for his wastefulness in the sixth game of the set, claiming a break after producing an aggressive game of real intent.

Claiming a first break seemed to awaken something in Murray, and he wasted little time in claiming the next two games - and the set - with a display of clean ball-striking that looked ominous for his opponent.

In the early trappings of the second set, it was obvious that Murray had found his rhythm. Switching between attack and defence at the most opportune times, he raced into a 3-0 lead that Hanescu looked to have scant chance of overhauling.

At 4-1 down, everything Hanescu was trying proved unsuccessful - his shots were either too tentative or blasted well beyond the baseline as he headed towards defeat. Murray remains on course to face Roger Federer in the semis, but first he must beat David Ferrer.

"Start of the match was really important - there were a lot of tight games," Murray said to Sky Sports. "But once I got ahead I played really well. In future, maybe I'll need to play more aggressive. Against the likes of Ferrer, I'm going to have play as well - if not better - to win, and I look forward to it."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.