Murray hits cruise control to book place in semi-finals

The British No 1 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.

Afterwards, Murray, who made sure of his place in the Barclays ATP World Tour finals in London on Thursday after beating another Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, admitted he was delighted with his display.

"It was good, I served really well," he said.

"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 meets Juan Monaco in the final four after the unseeded Argentinian rallied from a set down to see off 13th-seeded Jurgen Melzer, who made headlines on Thursday by ousting top seed Rafael Nadal.

Novak Djokovic is also through to the last four after a straight-sets win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

The second-seeded Serbian – who will next face Roger Federer – forced three breaks of his opponent's serve in the opening set before one break did for the Spaniard in the next as Djokovic eased to a 6-2 6-3 win.

Djokovic, the winner of last weekend's China Open in Beijing, will face Federer after he beat Robin Soderling in their semi-final encounter.

Federer powered past Soderling to secure a comfortable 6-1 6-1 win to set up a meeting Djokovic, who defeated him in an epic US Open semi-final last month.