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Murray thunders past Russian ace

Vera Zvonareva bangs her racket down in frustratio during her match against Li Na at the Pacific Life Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, on Wednesday. Li won 6-4, 7-5. PHOTO: AP

British No. 1 Andy Murray outgunned Nikolay Davydenko while Daniela Hantuchova and Li Na (李娜) booked a semi-final clash with hard-fought wins at the ATP/WTA Pacific Life Open.

Murray stepped up his bid for his third career title with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 win over Russian fourth seed Davydenko on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals at the US$5.3 million hardcourt tournament.

The 19-year-old Scotsman ended on a high, firing a 220kph ace on the final point in the match.

Murray played with a sense of purpose from the beginning to end, using one of his two challenges to reverse a call on the first point of the match to his favor.

"I knew it was the first point, and I wasn't going to waste one because I saw it was wide," Murray said.

Li fought back from the brink of defeat to earn the first semi-final spot with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Vera Zvonareva, who had knocked out defending champ Maria Sharapova the day before.

Hantuchova survived a scare from Shahar Peer 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7/5) in a match that lasted almost three hours in the main stadium.

In the night match, Germany's Tommy Haas overpowered Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-3, 6-2 in a fourth round contest.

Haas avenged a loss to the Chilean in their last meeting 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 in the semi-finals of this year's Australian Open.

Murray, who was the last man to beat Roger Federer before Guillermo Canas knocked the three-time defending champ out on Sunday, broke Davydenko's serve three times and fired 10 aces.

"I got some big serves in during the last game when I needed to," Murray said.

"I felt I played the big points better. He surprised me at the start by coming to the net a lot. This was about me playing a really good match and managing to come through," he said.

Murray is off to a career best 18-3 start and moves into his first quarter-finals here where he will face Haas. The two have never met before.

Davydenko, who had a 2-1 career record against Murray going into Wednesday's contest, committed 42 unforced errors.

Chinese dynamo Li fought back from a 5-1 deficit in the second set to defeat Russian 15th seed Zvonareva. The 25-year-old from Wuhan Province said she felt her game go up a notch after falling behind in the second set.

"After she went ahead 5-1, I started to play better and then the ball seemed to slow down for me," said Li, who won the match when Zvonareva's final shot sailed into the net.

Zvonareva's exit comes one day after she knocked out defending champion and top seed Maria Sharapova of Russia 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Hantuchova had to overcome 61 unforced errors to beat Israel's Peer in a two hour, 53 minute marathon quarter-final.

Hantuchova broke Peer's serve four times and hit twice as many forehand winners (22-10).

On the men's side of the draw, Serbia's Novak Djokovic beat France's Julien Benneteau 6-3, 6-1 in a fourth-round match.
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