Murray eases into quarters in Florida

The world No 4 won 6-3, 6-4 in a match where both men played some superb tennis, but Murray was more consistent and had more winners.

Victory means the fourth seed will meet Janko Tipsarevic, the ninth seed, in the last eight.

While Simon did not play at all badly, everything Murray tried was, for the most part, coming off. A volley at the net gave him three points for the first set, which he took at the first time of asking with an ace Simon had no chance with.

The match went with serve at the start of the second set before in the fifth game Murray brought up triple break point with a superb cross-court drive, but the Frenchman managed to dig himself out of the hole to hold.

After holding Murray again moved to triple break point and after the second time of asking the Scot broke.

A scooped shot that flew over Simon’s head then made it 5-3 to the Scot and although Simon held in the next game, Murray forced three match points, seeing out the match with an ace