Andy Murray breezed into the last eight of the BNP Paribas Masters after thrashing world No.16 David Goffin 6-0, 6-1.
The encounter was a dress rehearsal for both men ahead of next months Davis Cup final. Great Britain will face Belgium at the Flanders Expo in Ghent, Belgium. Being the highest ranked players for both of their countries, it is expected that the two will battle against each other for the Davis Cup title.
The biggest factor to infuriate Murray didn’t occur on the court. It was during the change over when a ball kid accidently threw a ball at him.
The British No.1 went off guns blazing as as he dominated the Belgian at the start of the match by winning 12 out of the first 14 points of the match to change to a 3-0 lead after just seven minutes. The powerful shots fired from Murray’s racket proved too much for Goffin to manage as he at times struggled to return them. The aggressive start from the 2nd seed was stopped in the fourth game as Goffin got his first game on the scoreboard with a forehand crosscourt shot. Nevertheless, Murray remained the dominant player on the court as he produced a spectacular backhand winner to break the world No.16 for the second time to lead 5-1. Serving for the opening set Murray produced a below-par game to hand his Belgian rival a break point opportunity, but Goffin was unable to convert as the Brit battled back to deuce. Murray took the set after winning a 24-shot rally thanks to an unforced error from Goffin, his 12th of the match. Throughout the opening set Murray lost just one point behind his first serve and produced 10 winners.
Murray continued his attacking play in the following set as he recovered from 0-40 down to break Goffin with a spectacular forehand shot as the Belgian glared towards his camp watching him. The trouble for the Belgian was the speed of Murray’s returning. As soon as Goffin finished his service motion, the ball was already back to him. The at times fragile serve from the Belgian played into the hands of Murray as he charged to another break point chance in the third game of the second set to lead by a set and 3-0. The Brit easily converted the point after a shot into the net from from Goffin. Despite trailing to Murray, Goffin kept on fighting. In the fifth game of the second set he fended off four break points before succumbing to the fifth as Murray broke for a chance to serve for the match. The task was easy for the Brit as he produced a sublime backhand down the line on his first match point to grab the victory.
During his outstanding 52-minute match, Murray produced 8 aces, 22 winners, 8 unforced errors and won 90% of his first service points. The straightforward win by Murray is Goffin’s heaviest defeat since the 2013 Rotterdam Open where the Belgian lost 6-0, 6-0 to Jarkko Nieminen.
