Murray marches on with dominant display against Simon

Andy Murray faces Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in the last eight Andy Murray showed an ailing Gilles Simon no mercy Monday as he swept into the Australian Open quarter-finals alongside former finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga powered past fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet to set up a meeting against 17-time Grand Slam king Roger Federer or rocket-serving Canadian Milos Raonic, who play later on Monday.
US Open champion Murray was too physical for the troubled French 14th seed Simon, still struggling after a marathon match over the weekend, as he won 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 in 1hr 35min on Hisense Arena.
Simon was barely mobile around the court following Saturday's nearly five-hour win over fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils, and he was a spent force late in the match.
Murray broke Simon's serve eight times and hit 32 winners with just 26 unforced errors, while the Frenchman could hardly break into a run inside the final set.
"I have to try and focus on my side of the court. He's one of the best movers on the tour and he was clearly struggling in his movement today," Murray said.
"It was tough, but that's what Grand Slam tennis is. The games are so physical nowadays and it was 8-6 in the fifth set the other day and nearly five hours, so it was tough for him."
Simon was sanguine about his exit. "It was just difficult for me today. I just did all I could for the last two days to be able to play this one," he said.
"It was a painful hour-and-a-half on the court. Andy is a very good player so it's always very hard to beat him. Without being 100 percent you have almost no chance to do it."
Murray largely did as he pleased, breaking Simon three times in the opening set, another three times in the second and two more in the final set.
Murray's 10th victory over Simon took him into his ninth consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final and his 15th overall.
He now faces up to the 36th-ranked Jeremy Chardy in the last eight, following the Frenchman's four-set win over Italian 21st seed Andreas Seppi earlier on Hisense Arena.
Chardy's previous best performance at a major was his fourth-round appearance at the French Open in 2008, when he lost to Spaniard Nicolas Almagro.
Meanwhile Tsonga sang the praises of new coach Roger Rasheed as he stepped up his campaign for a maiden Grand Slam win.
The 2008 runner-up was too strong for ninth seed Gasquet, winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in 2hr 20min on Rod Laver Arena.
Tsonga said his game was benefiting from working with his new Australian coach Rasheed, the former mentor to Lleyton Hewitt and Gael Monfils, as he seeks his Grand Slam breakthrough.
"He's giving me an extra motivation. It's great because he's always positive. He wants maybe more than me to win. He's incredible," Tsonga said.
"So I try to be at his level and have exactly the same motivation because I think he can move some mountains, because he's very motivated."


Source: AFP