Murray serves up a treat

Murray: untroubled progress

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Defending champion Andy Murray reached the quarter-finals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open with a 6-2 6-4 thrashing of Philipp Petzschner.

The British number one took full advantage of an error-strewn display from his unseeded German opponent to continue his encouraging start to the season.

The world number four notched back-to-back wins over Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer at an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi last week.

Murray secured breaks of serve in the third and seventh games on the way to taking the opening set.

Petzschner, the world number 66, had failed to make any headway against Murray's rock-solid serving and that theme continued in the second set.

A solitary break in the third game was enough for the Scot to close out victory.

Impressive

It was an impressive performance from Murray, who landed 72 percent of his first serves, fired down six aces, and did not face a break point during the 71-minute contest.

He will play Sergiy Stakhovsky in the last eight after the Ukrainian downed Alexander Peya 7-5 6-3.

Murray overcame Stakhovsky in the junior US Open final in 2004 and more recently beat him in the Davis Cup in 2006.

Top seed Nadal also reached the quarter-finals with a 6-1 6-2 success over Karol Beck. He has dropped just four games during the first two rounds in Doha.

Next up for the Spaniard is fifth seed Gael Monfils, who saw off fellow Frenchman Nicolas Devilder 7-5 7-6 (7-5).