Murray and Nadal keep momentum going to make Qatar quarterfinals

Doha: Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal maintained their momentum to enter the quarterfinals, while Russian Mikhail Youzhny fell to qualifier Karol Beck at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open on Wednesday.

Murray took 71 minutes in his 6-2, 6-4 defeat of unseeded Philipp Petzschner of Germany, while Nadal kept up his ruthless form with a clinical 6-1, 6-2 win against Slovakian qualifier Karol Beck.

Youzhny, who had sent seventh seed and fellow Russian Igor Andreev packing late on Tuesday, could not maintain the same intensity as he lost 6-2, 6-4 against Romanian Viktor Hanescu.

On centre court, it was Murray's superior first serve that stood him in good stead as he latched on to two breaks in the third and seventh games to take the opening set 6-2 in 37 minutes.

In the second, his German opponent started serving well and that sort of had Murray a bit worried. But the Scot hung in there and broke Petzschner in the third and then held for a 3-1 lead to ultimately wrap up the set at 6-4.

"My first serve is always strong, but I do need to work on my second serve and my upper body to become more effective," Murray stated.Murray will next meet either Austrian Alexander Peya or Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky in today's quarterfinals.

Later yesterday evening, Nadal was off to a slow start against qualifier Karol Beck. But once the top seed and world number one got going, it was difficult to stop him as he did just enough to win in straight sets 6-1, 6-2 in 61 minutes.

Beck matched Nadal's game during the early part of the encounter.