ANDY Murray took just 81 minutes to defeat India’s Somdev Devvarman 6-3, 6-3 at the Shenzhen Open.
Murray continued his quest to reach the season-ending ATP World Tour finals by booking his place in the quarter-finals of the Shenzhen Open in China.
Murray started the week in 11th place in the race with only the top eight guaranteed a place at the lucrative event at the O2 Arena in November.
His desire to qualify took him to Shenzhen where he began his campaign with a win over Devvarman on Thursday in his first match since tweeting in support of Scottish independence, which prompted widespread abuse on the social media site.
Murray, seeded second, proved a cut above his world number 141-ranked opponent, breaking twice in the first set without reply.
Devvarman rallied to break the Scot in the second, but Murray converted both of his own break-point opportunities to move through in one hour and 21 minutes.
In the quarter-finals Murray will play Slovakia’s world number 85, Lukas Lacko, who beat Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania 6-4, 7-6.
The top seed, David Ferrer, suffered an upset as he was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by the Serbian qualifier Viktor Troicki. Troicki fired 13 aces on his way to victory in just 55 minutes.
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