Andy Murray swept past the big-serving Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-4 6-2 to book his place in the quarter-finals of the St Petersburg Open.
British number one in cruise control
Andy Murray swept past the big-serving Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-4 6-2 to book his place in the quarter-finals of the St Petersburg Open.
The world number 50 was expected to give the top seed a difficult time but the Scot brushed Gulbis aside in just over an hour.
The British number one once again proved his serve to be a potent weapon, winning 82 per cent of first his serves, and despite his opponent managing to forge a break in the first set, Murray hit back on four occasions to nullify Gulbis' challenge.
Murray broke first to lead 5-3 but his 20-year-old opponent immediately hit back before the Scot repeated the feat to clinch the set.
Gulbis squandered a break point in the first game of the second set but thereafter his challenge fell away as Murray broke in the sixth and eighth games to seal the win.
"He (Gulbis) is very unpredictable in his game style," Murray said. "He had a couple of good shots to break me, but I broke him in the next game, so it wasn't a problem.
"I'm going to try my best to win the tournament. When you keep winning, it gives you a lot of confidence."
The world number four is attempting to win successive tournaments following his victory in the Madrid Masters last week, and his second consecutive triumph in St Petersburg.
Murray will next face Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic, who battled past Jeremy Chardy of France 6-4 7-6 in his second round match.
However, there was disappointment for eighth seed Marat Safin, who crashed out 6-4 6-2 to the unheralded Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan.
The former grand slam winner and dual St Petersburg champion struggled with his serve and was broken twice to drop the first set, before Golubev won five games in succession on the way to clinching his first quarter-final spot.
