Murray masters Moya to secure place in last eight

Andy Murray booked his first appearance in a Masters Series quarter-final with a 6-2, 6-4 win over the former world No 1 Carlos Moya in the Rogers Cup in Toronto last night.

The 19-year-old Briton will face Jarkko Nieminen or David Sanguinetti ­ neither of whom he has met previously ­ in the last eight after a gritty performance against the Spaniard.

Having comfortably taken the first set, Murray was broken twice in the second but showed enough character to come through for victory.

The British No 1 had two early chances to break after winning the opening game but on both occasions his cross-court forehand was long and Moya recovered to make it 1-1. Immediately, the Scot found himself in a similar position but fought back successfully and created the crucial break after working his opponent all over the court in the next.

Murray took a 4-1 lead and, after the next two games went with serve, he went on to win the set 6-2 in style. He restricted Moya to just one point in his fourth service game and a double-fault from the Spaniard gave Murray his second break and the first set.

It was Murray's serve which let him down in the first game of the second set when a sloppy drop-shot into the net allowed Moya to come back to break.

Moya won the next game to love but Murray stopped the rot to bring it back to 2-1. A double-fault at love-30 presented Murray with an opportunity to break back, and he seized it with a powerful forehand and went ahead for the first time in the set at 3-2.

The Spaniard then levelled at 3-3 but the quality of Murray's return was causing his 29-year-old opponent problems and Moya was again restricted to just one point as the Scot secured a second service break for 5-3. But a loss of footing for Murray at 30-15 was then followed by two off-balance shots into the net as Moya immediately broke back.

Fittingly, though, the Scot came back from 30-15 down to break Moya to progress into the quarter-finals.

Murray was delighted with the way he managed to mix up his game to keep Moya on his toes. He said: "Normally I play from the baseline but I [have] played a lot of matches and it was hot in Washington. I didn't want to do too much running. I wanted to play into his backhand and come into the net. I won 16 of 19 points when I came to the net. It worked well."

Tomas Berdych, of the Czech Republic, caused an upset when he defeated No2 seed Rafael Nadal 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 last night.

* The former world No 1s Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport, both back after injury, experienced contrasting fortunes in the Los Angeles Open second round. Williams, who was competing in only her second tournament in seven months because of an ongoing knee condition, beat her fellow American Ashley Harkleroad, 6-3, 6-2. But the fourth-seeded Davenport, out since March with a back injury, lost 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 to the Australian doubles specialist Samantha Stosur.