Andy Murray made short work of Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov to advance to the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters and round off a successful day for British tennis.

The Scot's victory came just hours after Laura Robson and Heather Watson both secured victories in their second round matches at the Japan Open.

Murray had received a bye in the second round of the tournament in China as Germany's Florian Mayer was forced to retire due to injury.

Andy Murray
Murray in action against Alex Dolgopolov in Shanghai [Reuters]

Dolgopolov had upset France's Gilles Simon in straight sets to advance to the third round and was expected to give Murray a difficult match.

However, the world number three was rarely troubled as he secured a 6-2 6-2 victory in just 57 minutes and will now face Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in the next round.

Murray appeared to be struggling with a cold but it did little to hinder his performance as he took control of the match from the very outset.

After comfortably winning the first set, Murray secured an early break to lead 2-1, only to allow Dolgopolov to break straight back after a sloppy service game.

It did little to turn the momentum of the match and Murray then reeled off four games on the trot to seal the victory.

"When you play against him I think it's very important that you need to play a solid match but it's very important to play variety," said Murray.

"Normally his game style gives guys problems if you keep playing the same ball over and over and he's the one chipping balls, hitting some flat balls, higher [balls], coming to the net, using drop shots; so I tried to use the slice a little bit, some higher balls and some off-pace balls so that he didn't have the rhythm to play his normal game."

Murray's win rounded off a successful day for Britain's in action as Robson secured a 6-4 6-4 win over China's Zhou Yimao, while Watson came from a set down to beat Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-7 6-2 6-3.

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