VALENCIA, Spain (AP) — David Ferrer and Andy Murray both advanced to the Valencia Open quarterfinals after easy wins against error-prone opponents on Thursday.
The top-seeded Ferrer beat Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-2 after jumping out to early leads in both sets by breaking his his fellow Spaniard’s first service games, while the third-seeded Murray dispatched Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-4 on the indoor hard court.
Ferrer, a three-time champion in Valencia, used his tenacious ground game to force Verdasco into errors and took the first set when his opponent sent a shot into the net.
Ferrer started the second set in the same fashion, breaking Verdasco at love when he chased down a ball and drove a forehand passing shot down the line.
A frustrated Verdasco offered little resistance after that as Ferrer recorded his sixth straight win against his countryman.
Ferrer finished with only eight unforced errors to 25 for Verdasco, who hit five double-faults.
Ferrer will face Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci, who advanced on a walkover after Roberto Bautista Agut couldn’t play their match because of abdominal pain.
Murray had a similar match against Fognini.
The Italian served four doubles faults and committed 20 unforced errors in the first set. Murray broke Fognini again to move ahead 3-2 in the second set before closing out the match when Fognini committed his 36th unforced error by netting a return.
Murray, who won here in 2009, will face seventh-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa next.
On the other side of the bracket, Jeremy Chardy of France fought back to beat Alexandr Dolgopolov 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 in just over two hours.
Chardy saved eight break points and converted four of the seven he earned to rally back against the Ukrainian. Chardy will face Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta next.
Also, Pablo Andujar of Spain beat Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-2 and will play fellow countryman Tommy Robredo.
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