Andy Murray rolls into Dubai quarterfinals

Britain’s Andy Murray advanced to the quarterfinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships with a routine 60, 62 victory Wednesday over Portugal’s Joao Sousa.

Murray, the runnerup at the recently concluded Australian Open, needed just 58 minutes to advance to this hardcourt event’s final eight and run his career record against Sousa to a perfect 50.

The Portuguese world No. 50 has not won a single set in any of those five contests.

Murray, whose coach Amelie Mauresmo did not make the trip to the United Arab Emirates, won the first eight games of the lopsided match.

The Scotsman, who this week leapfrogged Spain’s Rafael Nadal into the third spot in the ATP men’s singles rankings, will square off in the Dubai quarterfinals against either Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis or promising Croatian teenager Borna Coric.

Top seed and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Swiss world No. 2 Roger Federer play their thirdround matches on Wednesday evening against Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev and Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, respectively.