Andy Murray keeps challenge to become world number one on track in Paris

Andy Murray kept his challenge to be world number one on track as he reached the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Masters with a straight-sets victory over Lucas Pouille.

The 29-year-old, who is hoping to overhaul Novak Djokovic at the top of the rankings this week, fired down six aces in a 6-3 6-0 win in 73 minutes on Centre Court in Paris.

Pouille won the first two points of the match on Murray's serve as the Frenchman got off to a flying start in front of his home crowd, but the British number one battled back to draw first blood.

Murray then broke Pouille immediately before holding serve again to surge into a 3-0 lead.

Despite the score, the 22-year-old Frenchman was making Murray work hard for his points and he pulled a game back to give himself a lifeline.

Pouille also had an opportunity to claim the next game when Murray's backhand caught the top of the net with the score on deuce, but the Scot saved the break point before seeing things out to move 4-1 ahead in the match.

Pouille closed in once more with victory in the next game, Murray's attempted lob at 30-15 flying way over his opponent and out at the back of the court, before the underdog made further inroads with a break.

Against serve, Pouille began the next game on top and won three break points before reducing Murray's lead to 4-3.

However, that was as good as it got for Pouille as Murray subsequently reeled off eight games in succession to take the victory.

After promptly wrapping things up in the first set, Murray carried that momentum into the second and earned three break points in the opening game.

Pouille recovered to level things up at deuce but, after the Frenchman had failed with a challenge as Murray's shot to the baseline was deemed in, it was the second seed who took the game.

Murray was forced to fight for the second game as well, with a fine Pouille backhand giving the world number 18 an advantage, but the three-time grand slam winner managed to hold and go 2-0 up.

Pouille continued to battle but Murray's class shone through and a fault by the Franchman saw the Scot notch up another game.

A brilliant forehand winner then helped Murray go 4-0 and Pouille let his frustrations get the better of him as the Olympic champion broke again.

Murray missed out on one match point in the sixth game, but the end was not long in coming and a neat forehand saw him eventually take the set and the match and seal his spot in the last eight.

Murray's quarter-final opponent will be Tomas Berdych after the seventh seed beat Gilles Simon 6-4 6-3 in the final match of the day.

The Scot told www.atpworldtour.com: "I thought I returned well today. I had chances in almost all of his service games during the match. "Obviously that's good when the surface is a bit quicker. I was getting a good hit on them and rushing him immediately.''

On his tie with Czech Berdych in the last eight, Murray added: "I've played Simon a few times in the past few weeks and they're hard matches, physically tough, a lot of long rallies.

"Whereas with Berdych, it's a power game and much shorter points. Very different players.''

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