Britain’s Andy Murray cruised into the Dubai Championships quarter-finals, taking just 57 minutes to beat Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-0 6-2. Sousa, who has never won a set in five matches against the world number three, made 38 unforced errors. Murray took the first set in 21 minutes against his Portuguese opponent, who then dropped his opening service game in the second set and never recovered. The 27-year-old Scot plays Croatia’s Borna Coric in the last eight. Coric beat Marcos Baghdatis in unusual circumstances, as the Cypriot retired during the final set tie-break with the score at 4-4. Coric had won the first set 6-4 and lost the second 3-6.
Murray, who reached the final on his last appearance in Dubai three years ago, was a third-round victor in straight sets against Sousa, 25, at the Australian Open last month. He won just as comfortably this time, as Sousa made 19 unforced errors in the opening set, which Murray secured with an ace. The world number 50 did manage to get off the mark by winning the third game of the second set. But Murray forced another break of serve to go 5-2 in front, before he served out the victory with the minimum of fuss.
“Today I thought I just picked the right shots and played the right way when he was struggling,” Murray said.
“I didn’t give him any free points. I didn’t make, you know, just sort of needless errors.
“You know, I wasn’t just going for shots just because I was up 4-0. I thought I made good decisions and didn’t give him anything for free, and he was getting more frustrated because he couldn’t get any free points and then was going for more and more shots and obviously making more errors because of it.”
“It’s funny how, when you win matches, it’s okay to say you’re trying something out, and when you lose matches, you’re not allowed to say that,” Murray replied with an edge to his voice, explaining that “I am a wee bit careful when I say about trying out things, because of when I was here a few years ago.”
Joao Sousa vs Andy Murray, 25/02/2015, 10:15 GMT, Match Center
Andy Murray makes Dubai Championships quarter-finals
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