Murray hammers Verdasco

The Briton will now face Juan Martin Del Potro in the semi-finals after the 20-year-old Argentine upset world number one Rafael Nadal.

After all the passion and excitement of that match, there was a subdued air on the stadium court when Murray took on Verdasco, looking for revenge for his five-set defeat to the Spaniard in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

Verdasco, up to number nine in the world rankings after a fine recent run, had already dropped his opening two service games before tweaking a hamstring when stretching for a forehand on the baseline.

Murray ruthlessly exposed the injury with some solid, consistent tennis as he waited patiently for the regular unforced errors from Verdasco.

The Briton was broken in the fifth game of the opening set, but he had already established a 4-0 lead at that point and was able to comfortably close out the set.

Verdasco took a long injury time-out in the locker-room at the end of the set, and when he returned looked far from comfortable. He held his serve for the first time in the match to halt a run of six straight games for Murray to cut the second-set deficit to 4-1.

But Murray easily served out for a 6-2 victory to record his 24th win of 2009 and continue his push for third spot in the world rankings, released on Monday.

"I had this problem in my gluteals in the second game of the match, and after that, it was tough to keep in the match, to put pressure on him," said Verdasco.

"He's one of the best players right now. If you're not 100 per cent you have no chances to win against him."