By Anton Lagani, Lawn Tennis Correspondent, Posted: Friday, October 17, 2008 7:01am PST USA

MADRID--(lawntennismag.com) In the first of four quarterfinals today at the Mutua Madrileņa Masters Madrid, Andy Murray of Britain out-steadied Gael Monfils of France 6-2, 6-2. The match stayed even early at 2 all until the fourth seeded Murray held then broke serve to reach 4-2. It was great defense from Murray as well as too many unforced errors from the unseeded Monfils which decided the match. Two backhand errors from Monfils caused him to lose serve to fall behind 2-4. A Monfils netted backhand Andy Murray | Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images

In the final game of the match, Monfils showed more aggressive tennis as he had throughout the match. But again Murray had answers for the pressure from Monfils. on set point put Murray ahead 6-2 in only 36 minutes. In set two Murray broke serve again to reach 3-1 after a Monfils shot was called long after Murray challenged the shot. Murray held for 4-1 after hitting two aces in a row. A netted Monfils backhand volley on breakpoint gave Murray a 5-1 lead. Murray however would hit a forehand long to be broken himself to make the score 5-2. In the final game of the match, Monfils showed more aggressive tennis as he had throughout the match. But again Murray had answers for the pressure from Monfils. On matchpoint, Monfils netted a backhand off of a Murray dropshot to end the match in one hour, seven minutes. Monfils for the day hit 31 unforced errors to only 15 winners and won only 25 percent of his second serves. The more consistent Murray takes on either world number two Roger Federer of Switzerland or Juan Martin Del Portro of Argentina in Saturday's semifinals. Share: Facebook Digg