20 Aug 2011

Murray beats Simon to advance to semi-finals

9:02 am on 20 August 2011

Britain's Andy Murray eased into the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Tennis Open with a comfortable 6-3 6-3 win over France's Gilles Simon.

Murray, who has won the last seven meetings with 10th seed Simon, exchanged breaks with his opponent to start the match but the Scot was in control the rest of the way.

Simon was the only player outside the top eight seeds to reach the quarter-finals after a three-set win over Spain's David Ferrer that lasted over three hours.

Murray will now face the winner of the quarter-final between world number two Rafa Nadal and American Mardy Fish.

World number one Novak Djokovic is in action later against France's Gael Monfils, while number three Roger Federer has a tricky test against Czech Tomas Berdych, who beat him twice last year.