ANDY MURRAY cruised through to the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome with a 6-0 6-4 victory over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Murray, who will return to world number two next week after Roger Federer's third-round defeat to Dominic Thiem, raced through the opening set but was made to work harder in the second before seeing out the match in 77 minutes.
World number 32 Chardy made a better fist of it after failing to take a game off Murray in the first set with the Scot producing a virtually error-free display.
Lapses in concentration from Murray let Chardy back into the match in the second set, but from 3-4 down the world number three broke his opponent twice, winning three straight games to secure his place in the last eight.
Murray won 87 per cent of the points when landing his first serve and after losing to world number one Novak Djokovic in the final of the Madrid Open last week is maintaining his form on clay ahead of the French Open, this year's second grand slam, which is due to start in 10 days.
Federer's loss to Thiem means Murray will return to the number two spot behind Djokovic.
The Swiss, struggling to overcome a back injury which could threaten his participation at Roland Garros, overtook Murray on Monday after the British number one narrowly failed to defend his Madrid Open title.
But Federer knew he needed to at least match his final appearance at the Masters tournament 12 months ago to have a chance of preventing Murray taking the place straight back.
Murray will play David Goffin in the quarter-finals after the Belgian world number 13 routed the Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych 6-0 6-0 in his third-round match in just 49 minutes.
Serena Williams overcame a first-set scare to beat fellow American Christina McHale 7-6 (9/7) 6-1 to secure a quarter-final clash with Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome.
World number one Williams was down by an early break and saved a set point in the opener before breaking McHale's resolve in the second set.
McHale served for the first set in the ninth game after converting her eighth break point at 2-2, but Williams broke back to level the match.
In the tie-break McHale saved two set points before 21-time grand slam champion Williams clinched the 16th point to take the set.
Williams, three-time champion in Rome, found more consistency in the second set and broke McHale three times, sealing victory in one hour and 61 minutes on her second match point.
Russia's Kuznetsova, the last woman to beat Williams - in the round of 16 in Miami, edged a see-saw battle against Daria Gavrilova 6-2 2-6 6-3.
Kuznetsova was under pressure for much of the last two sets but made the decisive break against an increasingly nervous opponent in the eighth game of the decider.
Britain's Johanna Konta suffered a disappointing defeat to Japan's Misaki Doi, failing to follow up her win over seventh seed Roberta Vinci in the previous round to lose 4-6 7-5 6-2.
Konta began well and, after winning the opening three games, held off a Doi comeback to win the first set.
She then fought back from two breaks down to draw level in the second at 5-5 but from there lost eight of the last 10 games as Doi, ranked 45 to Konta's 23, clinched victory in two hours and 21 minutes.
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