Murray into Shenzhen quarterfinals

Andy Murray moved past David Goffin today in Shenzhen to make the quarterfinals with a 6-3 6-4 win.

The victory over the Belgian represented the biggest scalp of Murray's comeback to date, Goffin being ranked 11th in the world.

The opening set breezed by in 37 minutes and Murray looked on course for a more impressive win than the final score indicates when he served for the match at 5-2 up in the second.

Goffin chose that moment, however, to prolong the encounter by breaking and then clawing back to within a point of 5-5 as Murray served for the win again.

The Scot held off the late challenge though and eventually held serve to roll into the last eight of the tournament.

In Friday's quarterfinal, Murray will face a familiar old foe in Fernando Verdasco. The Spaniard thwarted Murray as recently as the US Open just a few weeks ago.

Murray, the 2014 champion here in southern China, will hope to right that wrong and continue his run at the penultimate event of his 2018 season.