Top seed Murray into French Open quarter-finals, Nishikori also through

PARIS, June 5 (Xinhua) — Men’s world No. 1 Andy Murray secured his place in the last eight at the French Open with a sweep over Karen Khachanov on Monday, setting up a quarter-final clash with Asian top-ranked Kei Nishikori.

Murray beat the 21-year-old Khachanov 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and four minutes to record the 650th win of his career.

Murray finished five aces and a total of 29 winners. Last year’s finalist could bounce back immediately after suffering two breaks in the third set.

“I think today was probably the best I have played overall,” said the top seed.

For Khachanov, playing on the center court at Roland Garros was a pleasure, but losing the match was always hard to bite.

“It’s never fun to lose a match, but I took a great experience from this match to play on the center court,” he said.

After experiencing a five-set thriller in the third round dalayed by the rain, the eighth-seeded Nishikori regrouped himself and came back from one set down to see off Fernando Verdasco 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-0.

The Japanese won 73 percent of net points, and he managed to overcome 46 unforced errors to cruise into the quarter-finals.