Nottingham | Murray maintains his run

Tour veteran Andy Murray advanced to the quarter finals of Rothesay Open in Nottingham as he continues his pursuit of ranking points to elevate himself into a seeded position for Wimbledon which starts on the 3rd of July.

I'm an old boy now so it takes me a bit longer to recover but I'm feeling good Andy Murray

The Scot maintained his strong form on grass and has now won 12 of his past 13 Challenger-level matches, his latest victim being Frenchman Hugo Grenier who went down 6-3, 7-5.

Murray secured an early break, leaping into a 4-0 lead to take control of the first set but the Frenchman retaliated in the second but the Scot rallied with a strong hold to love to draw level at 5-all which he followed up with a break and then served out to secure a straight-set win.

“It’s been a lot of matches for me,” the 36-year-old Murray said. “I’m an old boy now so it takes me a bit longer to recover but I’m feeling good.”

Murray won 68 per cent of points behind his second serve, compared to Grenier’s 37 per cent, and will next face Swiss Dominic Stricker, who ousted home hope Ryan Peniston 6-4 6-2.

A semi-finalist at last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals, the 20-year-old Stricker has collected two Challenger Tour trophies this season: Rovereto and Prague.

Murray can match that record with his Surbiton triumph last week and his Aix-en-Provence title won last March when he beat Americas Tommy Paul for the title.

The Nottingham quarter final features Murray versus Stricker; Nuno Borges, the third seed from Portugl against Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro while the American qualifier Zachary Svajda faces Canadas Gabriel Diallo and Germany’s Dominic Koepfer takes on Britan’s George Loffhagen.