On the day Roger Federer assured himself of a record 300th week as world No.1, it would have taken something seismic to outdo the Swiss.

But if Andy Murray can continue to play as well as he did yesterday at the Shanghai Masters, then he won't mind playing second fiddle one bit.

The US Open and Olympic champion, who has won the title in each of the past two years, dismantled the unorthodox game of Alexandr Dolgopolov with a confident 6-2, 6-2 victory to reach the quarter-finals.

With the exception of one dropped service game, which resulted in a smashed racket, he was efficient and ruthless and if anything, he seemed more troubled by a cough than anything Dolgopolov could throw at him.

The world No.20 causes problems for many of the top players with his changes of pace, vicious slice and ability to hit the unlikely but Murray has now won all four of their meetings and looked comfortable from the start.

"His game style gives guys problems if you keep playing the same way over and over and he's the one chipping, hitting flat balls, coming to the net and using drop shots," said Murray, who next plays the Czech Radek Stepanek. "So I tried to use the slice a little bit, some higher balls, some off pace balls, so that he didn't have the rhythm to play his game."

The tactic worked and Murray was never troubled. Two breaks gave him the first set and though he dropped serve at 2-1 in the second, he then won the next four games to clinch an impressive victory.

Murray has won four of their five encounters with Stepanek but will be wary of the veteran Czech, who beat the American John Isner in a tough three-setter. "He's in great shape," said Murray. "He's incredibly quick and flexible. He has a very different game style to a lot of the guys now. He's a character on the court, as well. He likes to entertain, too, and can frustrate guys. I'll need to make sure I'm focused and patient and take care of my side of the court."

Should he do that, Murray is likely to face Federer in the semi-finals. The world No.1 flirted with defeat against his compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka before coming through 4-6, 7-6, 6-0 to set up a meeting with Marin Cilic of Croatia.

British tennis has been enjoying something of a boom of late and Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins continue to do their bit as they chase a place in the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Yesterday's 6-4, 7-5 win over No.3 seeds Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau – their second victory over the Wimbledon runners-up in a week – took them into a first Masters 1000 quarter-final. If they can beat the sixth seeds, Aisam-Ul-Haq Quereshi of Pakistan and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands, today, they may begin to believe that a London berth is possible.

Meanwhile, in the WTA event in Osaka, Britain's top two women, Laura Robson and Heather Watson, reached the quarter-finals yesterday. Both players were due to play their quarter-final matches in the early hours of this morning, with Robson likely to break into the world's top 50 if she beat Chang Kai-Chen of Chinese Taipei.