Andy Murray has blasted past No. 16 seed David Goffin to reach the final 8 of the ATP Masters 1000 event in Paris. Coric, regarded as one of the rising stars of tennis, beat Murray 6-1, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Championships in February.
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The 28-year-old broke twice in the first set and only needed 25 minutes to take the lead.
“It was hard for me to do something today”, said Goffin. I like the conditions here. If it’s slow, then I feel like I can track a lot of balls down on the clay, which is positive.
Goffin, ranked at No 16 in the world and his country’s number one player, is a key part of the Belgium team but he could not cope with Murray’s aggression, conceding an early break when the Brit lashed a forehand into the corner. That includes three wins in Davis Cup play.
“It was good for me to get the chance to play him before the Davis Cup and see his game and the speed of his shots and where he maybe makes a few mistakes from and things that he likes to do”, Murray said.
There was no respite for Goffin in the second set and he blasted a backhand into the net as Murray motored into a 3-0 lead.
Murray broke again in the first game of the second set to stamp home his authority. The second set was even a solo of Murray. The Scot closed the first set with the final score of 6-1.
“It’s a great feeling because you feel like whatever you do, you will find a solution somehow”, Federer said. Today’s match, then, could not be more finely balanced.
Murray faces either Kei Nishikori or Richard Gasquet, the 10th seed, next. After two tense sets, the sixth seed was all over Chardy’s serve in the final set. “It was frustrating, I can assure you, losing four service games in (the second) set… I mean, mentally for me it’s a positive win”. The tightness of the match was reflected in the final tally with Dimitrov winning 96 points to 92 for Cilic. Gasquet won 41 of 48 points on serve. Nole takes advantage of the low serves by Simon, who loses 14 points in a row. The ninth smashed the Spaniard 6-2, 6-2 and will now face Berdych in the next round. The win marks just the second time since 2012 that the American has not dropped his opening match in Paris.
Nadal, who lost to Roger Federer in the Swiss Indoors final on Sunday, will next play either 11th-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa or Dominic Thiem of Austria.
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Rafael Nadal made short work of Lukas Rosol at the Paris Masters on Wednesday, defeating the big-serving Czech 6-2, 6-2 for a place in the last 16.
