Gilles Simon was expected to give Murray a tough test.  He is very steady player,  The French do, as a group, tend to perform better on faster surfaces.  However, given they are the home of clay tennis, they do know how to play on the stuff.

Gilles Simon was at his best in late 2008 when he surged to the top ten.  However, he had an indifferent 2009 and had injuries as well.  He is now trying to get his rank back up.  Simon is a steady quick player that can hit a hard shot here and there.  He lacks pure power, so he depends on his movement to win.

What he didn’t count on was twisting an ankle deep in the first set.  Commentators thought he should have retired, but he kept on playing.  Meanwhile, Murray decided he should drop shot more to test the ankle.  The crowd booed, but it was effective, and Murray had a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 win.  Even Simon conceded that the goal is to win the match, so if he was hurt, Murray was right to take advantage.

Nadal had a comfortable win over Richard Gasquet.  Troicki beat Robredo when Robredo retired in the second set after taking the first set.  Ferrer had an easy win over Raonic, his second time meeting him since they met back in Melbourne.  Melzer also had a comfortable win over Almagro.  Federer had a nice win over Cilic.  Cilic is still trying to gain the form that had many experts proclaiming he would be in the top 5.

There were two upsets.  Portuguese player, Frederico Gil, beat Monfils, 7-6, 6-2.  Croatian, Ivan Ljubicic, who is having a nice tournament, beat Berdych, 6-4, 6-2.

Tomorrow they play the quarterfinals.  Troicki plays Ferrer (should be advantage to Ferrer), Melzer plays Federer (who rarely loses to players his age), Nadal plays Ljubicic (who beat him in Indian Wells in 2010, but probably won’t have enough game on clay), and Murray plays Gil, who probably has the weakest opponent.  On the other hand, clay is also Murray’s weakest surface.  Still, it’s his best chance in some time to reach a clay semis.

Murray and Nadal are in the same half and Federer and Ferrer are also in the same half.

The only top ten player that’s not playing is Robin Soderling.  Americans Mardy Fish (ranked 11) and Andy Roddick (ranked 13) also chose not to play.