The Mutua Madrid Open defending champion Andy Murray made his way back into the tournament’s quarterfinals, moving past Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday.
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Murray, seeded second, broke Simon’s serve in the final game of the first set and twice in the second to stay on track to defend his title.
Djokovic will now take on Milos Raonic in the pick of Friday’s quarter-finals, while Nadal will meet Joao Sousa and Murray is up against Tomas Berdych.
All Offers and Promotions posted in this article excludes NSW residents. At 2-3 in the second-set tie-break, Kyrgios earned a mini-break when Wawrinka couldn’t handle a ball that skidded off the line.
Murray’s decision to decline the offer of a ticket to see Real Madrid knock Manchester City out of the Champions League earlier in the week – unlike Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – looks to have paid off.
“I don’t care about that match point”, he told News Corp Australia.
Murray defeated Nadal in straight sets a year ago to win his first Masters title on clay, but Murray lost to Nadal in the Monte Carlo semifinals last month.
Speaking about the increased speed on his second serve, Murray added: “It’s easy to say just hit the serve harder but sometimes you need to make technical adjustments and have coaching on that”.
The Serb star cruised past Roberto Bautista Agut 6-2, 6-1 in the third round. I have more belief and the French Open is a much higher possibility than before. “But when I got into a rhythm, I was able to dictate a lot of points”, said Murray. He lulls you into a false sense of security in points.
In the women’s draw, sixth-seeded Simona Halep of Romania routed Karin Knapp of Itay 6-1, 6-1, while eighth-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro beat Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-3, 6-2.
Awaiting her in the semi-finals is Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulková, who came from behind to overcome Romanian wildcard Sorana Cirstea 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
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Chirico was making her first appearance in a WTA semi-final and nerves seemed to get the better of the world number 130 as Cibulkova roared into a 5-0 lead.
