ANDY Murray progressed to the semi-finals of the inaugural Valencia Open with a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 victory over Albert Montanes.
The 22-year-old, who is the top seed for the event, was a little short of his best in the opening set but upped his level to easily see off the Spaniard.
Murray plays another home player next, with fourth seed Fernando Verdasco beating Tommy Robr
edo yesterday evening.
The Scot was pushed hard in his three-set win over Leonardo Mayer on Thursday but he got off to the perfect start yesterday with a break in the opening game when a Montanes backhand drifted wide. This was the pair's third meeting, all of which have come in 2009, with Murray triumphing in Doha and Indian Wells.
The Scot was struggling to find his range with his much-lauded double-handed backhand, though, and another error brought up a break point for Montanes in the sixth game. And when a forehand from the top seed landed fractionally wide, the Spaniard had his break back, much to the delight of the Valencia crowd.
Montanes then held firm under pressure to win his third game in a row and take the lead in the match for the first time. The Spaniard was not able to replicate that two games later, however, as Murray broke again thanks to a moment of real quality.
After a punishing rally, the 22-year-old executed a perfect backhand drop shot that left Montanes pinned to the baseline. And this time Murray had no trouble holding, wrapping up the set with an ace down the middle.
The Briton was clearly eager to avoid another lengthy match, and he began the second set in purposeful style by setting up three break points. Montanes, ranked 34th in the world, dug deep to get to deuce but Murray was not to be denied and he took advantage of his fourth chance with a backhand winner.
Murray was now looking a class above Montanes, and the 28-year-old was broken for a second consecutive time as the world number four moved into a 4-0 lead.
The home hope stopped the rot in the fifth game and he created a break chance for himself with Murray serving for the match at 5-2, but some big serving and a pinpoint forehand sent the Scot into the last four.
Russian Mikhail Youzhny earlier maintained his dominance over Gilles Simon, beating the French fifth seed 6-4, 6-4 for his fifth victory in five meetings between the pair and a place in the last four.
Nikolay Davydenko defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-4, 7-6 (7/3)
• Roger Federer made routine progress to set up an all-hometown semi-final at the Davidoff Swiss indoors in Basel. The world No 1 strolled past Russian Evgeny Korolev 6-3, 6-2 and will face unheralded local wildcard Marco Chiudinelli for a place in the final.
