Two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Tommy Haas to leave Andy Murray in the box seat at the Sony Open in Miami.
Veteran German Haas completely outplayed the world number one for a 6-2 6-4 victory, meaning Murray, who earlier beat Andreas Seppi by the same scoreline, is the highest seed left in the tournament going into the quarter-finals.
Haas’ prize is a last-eight meeting with 11th seed Gilles Simon, who beat Janko Tipsarevic in three sets.
Murray breezed into the quarter-finals, where he will face Marin Cilic, after cruising past 16th seed Seppi.
Murray has yet to drop a set in the tournament and this did not seem likely to change as he was rarely tested by his Italian opponent, whose sole break point opportunity came in the final game.
The Scot felt the windy conditions worked to his advantage.
“It was swirling a little bit at the start and he made more unforced errors than he usually does,” he told the Independent. “I was able to track down a lot of his balls because he wasn’t timing his shots that well.
“But he started going for his shots more in the second set and made it tough for me.”
There were also wins for the third and fourth seeds, David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych, as well as Richard Gasquet and Jurgen Melzer.