Murray breezes through (From Haringey Independent)

Murray breezes through

11:17pm Thursday 23rd October 2008 in

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Andy Murray advanced to the quarter-finals of the hardcourt St Petersburg Open on Thursday with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Latvia's Ernests Gulbis.

The top-seeded Scot made an impressive debut at this event last year as he defeated Fernando Verdasco in the final and - with the victory over Gulbis - is 7-0 here.

The triumph also gave him 50 wins in a season for the first time in his career and extended his overall winning streak to seven matches.

A champion at the Madrid Masters last weekend, Murray has claimed four titles this season and is showing no signs of slowing down as he has dropped just one set during his win streak.

Up next for the world number four is Janko Tipsarevic, a 6-4 7-6 (7/3) winner over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. The Serbian has had some success against Murray in the past, taking two of three meetings.

In other second round play, Kazakhstani qualifier Andrey Golubev stunned eighth seed Marat Safin, topping the former world number one 6-4 6-2.

The 150th-ranked Golubev will be contesting his first ATP quarter-final when he faces German qualifier Mischa Zverev, who pulled off an upset of his own by ousting fourth-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny 7-5 6-4.

Also moving into the quarters was Romania's Victor Hanescu, who posted a 6-3 7-6 (9/7) win over Mikhail Kukushkin.

Hanescu will face an unlikely opponent in the quarter-finals as Russian wild card Michael Elgin awaits.

Elgin, 27, was 0-5 lifetime on the ATP circuit before claiming a first-round win over Italy's Filippo Volandri earlier this week. The world number 145 then caught a break in the second round, winning via walkover when countryman Nikolay Davydenko withdrew from the event due to a wrist injury.