Andy Murray eased past Fernando Verdasco at the Aegon Championships but an expected quarter-final showdown with the man who beat him at Wimbledon last year was scuppered by Luxembourg left-hander Gilles Muller.
Top-seeded Murray, bidding for a record-equalling fourth title at Queen’s Club, fended off the Spaniard Verdasco to win 7-5, 6-4 and delight a large Centre Court crowd.
Earlier, defending champion Grigor Dimitrov, who stunned Murray in the Wimbledon quarter-finals last year, became the latest high-profile seed to fall, losing 6-4, 7-6 to Muller.
Dimitrov struggled to deal with Muller’s serve as he joined French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka and 14-time major winner Rafael Nadal on the casualty list of a tournament boasting increased prize money and ranking points this year.
Muller, 32, has served 56 aces in two matches so far. He now takes aim at Murray for a place in the semi-finals.
“It’s these challenges that I’m working for to play those matches on the big courts against the best guys in the world,” said Muller, who has battled his way back into the top 50 after sliding to 374 in the ATP rankings in 2013 after elbow problems.
Murray took the opening set when Verdasco netted a forehand in the 12th game but had to fend off several break points early in the second set, coming back from 0-40 down at 1-1.
Serving at 4-5, Verdasco served three double faults before seeing two aces chalked off on match point down because the ball brushed the net tape.
Another forehand error sealed his fate.
“It was a tricky match. Fernando is obviously an extremely powerful guy and you don’t have a chance to get into some of the rallies,” world No 3 Murray said on court before looking ahead to his next opponent.
“Gilles Muller served 37 aces in the first round – I haven’t served that many all year.”
Second-seeded Kei Nishikori eased into the last eight of the Halle Open, beating serve and volleyer Dustin Brown 7-5, 6-1 to set up a clash with Poland's Jerzy Janowicz.
“I am very satisfied with my performance today,” Nishikori said.
“It’s not easy to play Dustin and I did that very well today.”
Brown pushed Nishikori to 5-5 in the first set before the Japanese broke and then served out to take a 1-0 lead.
Nishikori then got to grips with his opponent’s serve in the second set to move into the last eight of a tournament for the 10th time in 11 events this year.
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