Madrid Masters 2016: Andy Murray remains on course to retain ranking by beating Gilles Simon

The Scot must win the tournament to stay ahead of Roger Federer in the rankings

Andy Murray in action at the Madrid Masters (Getty)

There is still some way to go for Andy Murray to hold on to his world No 2 ranking but the Scot will not be giving it up without a fight. Murray, who has to retain his Madrid Masters title this weekend in order to prevent Roger Federer overtaking him in next week’s new ranking list, advanced to the quarter-finals with an emphatic 6-4, 6-2 victory over France’s Gilles Simon.

Murray has had an excellent record over the years against Frenchmen, even on clay, which has always been his most challenging surface. This was his 16th win in his last 17 matches against French opponents on terre battue.

It was also Murray’s 14th win in his 16 career meetings with Simon. The world No 18 is a fine player who can trouble the very best, as he showed when pushing Novak Djokovic to the limit at this year’s Australian Open, but Murray evidently has his number.

With the start of the French Open less than three weeks away Murray is looking in excellent form. The 28-year-old Scot reached the semi-finals in his first clay-court tournament of the year in Monte Carlo last month and is playing well again this week.

The quicker conditions in Madrid do not suit everyone, but Murray proved in claiming his first clay-court Masters Series title in the Spanish capital last year that he can handle them. In Friday's quarter-finals he will face Tomas Berdych, who beat David Ferrer 7-6, 7-5. Berdych lost all three of his meetings with Murray last year.

There were no more than a few hundred spectators in the stadium when Murray and Simon entered the court at midday. If the crowd were slow off the mark, however, the players were not. There was some fine tennis from both men in a tight first set which featured only two break points.

Andy Murray strikes the ball at the Madrid Masters (Getty)

Simon saved the first of them in the eighth game with a superb stop volley. The second, two games later, gave Murray set point, which he promptly converted when Simon netted a forehand.

Murray kept up the pressure at the start of the second set, breaking serve immediately and going 3-0 up after winning his fifth game in a row. Whereas Murray regularly attacked Simon’s second serve, the Frenchman was rarely able to do the same. Murray did not face a break point all match.

At 4-2 there was a lengthy delay while paramedics treated a spectator who had fallen ill, but Murray was not to be distracted. The Scot hit a backhand long on his first match point but won a drop shot exchange on his second to secure victory after an hour and 38 minutes.

“I didn’t return that well at the beginning and missed a lot of returns in the first few games,” Murray told Sky Sports afterwards. “After that, when I started to get a rhythm on the return I was able to dictate a lot of the points. I used my variety well and served well.

“He wasn’t really able to put me under pressure on my serve after my first couple of service games. He’s obviously very tricky because he lulls you into a false sense of security. He sits back and absorbs the pace extremely well and sometimes the better you hit the ball the better it comes back off his racket. It’s tough to get the balance between being patient and being aggressive and dictating the points.”

Murray said his second serve had improved considerably this year. “The pace on it is probably 15 kilometres an hour faster than it was at this time last year,” he said. “I’m getting a lot more kick on the ball.”

He added: “If you don’t hit your second serve well against Simon he’ll have a crack at it. I was able to get the ball bouncing up high and made it tough for him.”

Murray currently leads Federer by 390 ranking points, but with the list updated every week to take into account results over the previous 12 months he needs to repeat his Madrid triumph of last year just to stay on the same total. If Murray finishes runner-up in Madrid he will be on equal points with Federer, who would take the No 2 position because he has played fewer tournaments. Federer withdrew from this week’s event because of a back problem but was defending only 10 points.

Nevertheless the tables will be turned at next week’s Rome Masters, where Federer will be defending 600 points as the 2015 runner-up. Murray has only 90 points to defend at the Foro Italico.

Murray’s brother Jamie will be replaced as doubles world No 1 next week by Marcelo Melo, Horia Tecau or Nicolas Mahut. Murray and Bruno Soares were beaten 6-4, 7-6 in the second round in Madrid by John Peers, the Scot’s former partner, and Henri Kontinen. Mahut and his partner, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, are aiming to become the first doubles pair ever to win the season’s first four Masters Series titles.