Andy Murray notched up yet another victory on the American hardcourts with a 6-3 6-3 win over Dmitry Tursunov. Murray broke serve in the very first game, and was looking comfortable almost immediately, a stark contrast to Wednesday's match with Sam Querrey.

The British number one knew that his quarter of the draw had opened up significantly, with fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko ousted beforehand, and he was striking the ball with fresh impetus, allowing Tursunov no time to settle into his own rhythm. Tursunov carved out a few break point opportunities in game four of the first set but Murray stayed calm under pressure, and defended impeccably to hold.

Both players exchanged breaks midway through the first set - with Murray realising that aggressive tennis was vital, if he was to have any chances of succeed. The Russian was strugggling to cope with Murray's variety and spin, and the Scot broke yet again to take the first set in style.

The momentum stayed with Murray, and another service break put the young Brit in the ascendancy from the very beginning. The first serve of Murray's was firing on all cylinders in the second set. The world number nine closed out the match in solid unspectacular fashion, and he will play Carlos Moya or Igor Andreev tomorrow for a semi-final berth.

Murray's post-match comments
It's so hot, unbelievably humid, you get out of breath really quickly so I was happy to come through in two sets.

I started to feel the ball better when I broke him early in the second. Against him it's so important to stay solid because he can produce some huge shots, get on a roll, and I was lucky that I didn't let him do that today.

"I changed the pace of the ball well and used the short slice and he didn't like that very much.

Match statistics (1 image)

muzza played very solidly which is all he seems to need against tursunov. got a feeling it will be andreev rather than moya, who i think will run out of gas...

Got to keep the punters satisfied Bev.

Murray for the final! woop woop!  

Wow, that coming from MTF is impressive.

Not really, there's a lot of Murray fans on there....

In terms of consistency, he's made massive strides Third game of second set was the single most awesome love hold of a service game I have ever seen.

Grand Slams are a different kettle of fish. You can only beat who is put in front of you. I'm not belittling Murray's results.... Far from it! They are fantastic and have the potential to be brilliant in the next few weeks. I only hope they are. What I am saying though, is that I don't feel he's made massive strides in his game to be rated the second best player in the world.

Bear in mind however, I did then concede his last two loses were to Nadal but apparently you ignored that part of my post......