Madrid Masters 2015: Weary Andy Murray continues his hot streak on clay with victory over Marcel Granollers

Andy Murray started his clay-court season later than most players but has wasted no time finding his feet on his most challenging surface. The Scot’s 6-2, 6-0 victory over Spain’s Marcel Granollers at the Madrid Masters was his sixth win in eight days since he began his campaign last week in Munich, where he went on to claim the first clay-court title of his career.

Although Murray has yet to face a top 10 player on clay this year, his unbeaten start on the surface should put him in good heart for the stiffer challenges that lie ahead. They will begin with his quarter-final against the world No 6, Canada’s Milos Raonic, who beat Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 6-3.

Murray has not gone beyond the last eight in Madrid since the tournament moved from hard courts to clay six years ago, but the world No 3 is in sparkling form. Granollers, who had only one break point in the match, was outplayed from start to finish as Murray showed few signs of his testing experience the previous night, when he finished his second-round victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber at 3am.

Having returned to the court at 9pm to face Granollers, Murray admitted that he had felt tired. He was clearly unhappy with the scheduling. “These are the ATP’s biggest tournaments,” he said. “We’re told all the time to speak well of the tournaments. If they want to see the top players playing their best tennis then don’t have them playing matches at three o’clock in the morning.”

Granollers, a former top 20 player who has slipped to No 62 in the world, was under pressure from the start. Murray, who was aggressive throughout and dictated most of the points, made his first break in the fourth game and took the opening set in just 30 minutes. The Scot completed his 64-minute victory by winning the last eight games, rounding off the win by forcing Granollers into the last of many backhand errors.

“I definitely played well,” Murray said. “Marcel was getting quite frustrated in the second set and I fed off that a little bit. I definitely felt pretty tired today. Yesterday was an extremely late finish. I just tried to pump myself up as much as possible.”

Rafael Nadal, the defending champion, crushed Italy’s Simone Bolelli 6-2, 6-2 to earn a quarter-final meeting with Grigor Dimitrov, who beat Stan Wawrinka 7-6, 3-6, 6-3. In the other quarter-finals, Tomas Berdych will meet John Isner, who ended Nick Kyrgios’ run, while Kei Nishikori will take on David Ferrer.

Serena Williams, the world No 1, and Maria Sharapova, the defending champion, are on course to meet in the women’s final. Williams beat Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-3, while Sharapova beat Caroline Wozniacki 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

In the semi-finals Williams will meet Petra Kvitova and Sharapova will take on Svetlana Kuznetsova, knowing that victory over her fellow Russian will guarantee her return to No 2 in the world rankings next week.