Patient Murray eases into Madrid Open quarter-finals

BySportsbeat

Published 05/05/2016 at 14:54 GMT

It may have looked straight forward enough but defending champion Andy Murray admitted he had to be patient in his approach as he saw off Gilles Simon to reach the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open.

Eurosport

Image credit: Eurosport

Murray needed just an hour and 38 minutes to beat 16th seed Simon 6-4 6-2 in Spain on Thursday.

Murray's serve was never broken and he broke Simon for the first time to take the opening set before breaking his opponent a further three times in the second set to complete the win.

The 28-year-old will next play with Czech Tomas Berdych or Spaniard David Ferrer in the last eight.

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"It's always difficult to get the balance right against him because the better you hit the ball, the faster it comes back against him," said Murray.

"He uses the pace very well so I knew I needed to be patient and use variety, but also when the chance is there, go for it.

"Sometimes he makes players rush, but today I didn't have that problem. It was good from start to finish."

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