• China Open

Murray eases through to last eight

Andy Murray needed just one hour and 20 minutes to defeat Pablo Cuevas © Getty Images

Enlarge

Andy Murray strolled into the quarter-finals of the China Open with a straightforward victory over Pablo Cuevas.

Fresh from winning the Shenzhen Open four days ago, Murray was on fine form in Beijing, needing just one hour and 20 minutes to beat the Uruguayan 6-2 6-2.

Murray will meet Marin Cilic for a place in the semi-finals on Friday after the US Open champion defeated Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-3 6-3.

World No.11 Murray made a flying start to his second-round encounter, breaking Cuevas in the first and third games and holding serve twice to race into a 4-0 lead.

Cuevas held his next two service games, but so did Murray to win the first set 6-2 with the minimum of fuss.

The start of the second set mirrored the first when Murray broke twice and held his own serve to surge into a 4-0 lead, but Cuevas then broke back before holding his serve to reduce the deficit to 4-2.

Annoyed at losing two successive games, Murray upped the ante by breaking Ceuvas for the fifth and final time in the next game before holding serve to win the second set 6-2 and wrap up victory in convincing fashion.

Earlier, Rafael Nadal moved into the quarter-finals with a straight-sets victory over German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk.

World No.2 Nadal, a runner-up in Beijing last year, sent down six aces and won 85% of his first-service points in a 6-3 6-4 second-round victory wrapped up in one hour and 44 minutes.

Nadal will play Martin Klizan for a place in the semi-finals on Friday after seventh seed Ernests Gulbis was forced to retire from their second-round match due to injury. Klizan was leading 6-2 3-0 when Gulbis withdrew.

Third seed Tomas Berdych will meet eighth seed John Isner in the last eight after strolling to a 6-3 6-4 victory over Serbian qualifier Viktor Troicki.

Fifth seed Grigor Dimitrov set up a quarter-final showdown with defending champion and world No.1 Novak Djokovic by seeing off Spaniard Pablo Andujar 6-4 6-4.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd