Tennis:Andy Murray crushed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to advance impressively into the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters. The British number one was at his imperious best against an opponent in the early stages of a comeback from a knee injury.
Tsonga, in just his fifth match following a three-month lay-off, was lacking his usual verve but that should not detract from Murray's performance as he eased to a 6-2 6-2 victory in just 55 minutes.
And with world number one Rafael Nadal going out yesterday - beaten in three sets by Jurgen Melzer - the draw has opened up for the Scot who will now meet either Austrian Melzer or Argentinian Juan Monaco for a place in Sunday's final.
And if he can produce a performance similar to that which accounted for Tsonga, he should have few problems.
He threatened in the opening game by getting to 0-30 before Tsonga battled back but there was no escape when the Frenchman served next although Murray was assisted by two forehand errors from his opponent.
Murray broke through again in the seventh game - Tsonga double-faulting to fall 0-40 down and Murray took advantage with a powerful forehand.
The second set was equally one-sided, Tsonga double-faulting again to lose his opening service game.
There was never any hint of Murray's dominance easing up with his serve working well, as were his ground strokes from the back of the court.
The wheels were coming off on the other side of the net, however, with Tsonga conceding another break to go 2-5 down after throwing in two wayward forehands to go with another double fault.
Murray served it out - he won 86 per cent of points after getting his first serve in the match - to complete an impressive victory.
Afterwards, Murray, who made sure of his place in the ATP World Tour finals in London this week, admitted he was delighted with his display.
He said: "It was good, I served really well. Jo was struggling a bit on his serve so I was able to get into a lot of the return games and I served really well all week so it was a good performance.
"I hit the ball really clean from the back of the court and the surface here is really good for me.''
Murray's forehand has gained some extra zip this week and he explained he has achieved it by an unconventional method.
"I am stringing my rackets tighter,'' he added.
"Normally the tighter the racket the more control you have and less power but I feel more comfortable swinging through the ball and giving it a crack.
"It doesn't travel as far and I feel I can go for it a lot more and that has made a difference.''