Murray rolls into Cincinnati semifinals

Fourth-seeded Briton Andy Murray rolled into the semi-finals of the ATP's Cincinnati Masters tournament on Friday with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over France's Gilles Simon.

Murray, who was shocked in his opener at Montreal last week, next faces either seventh-seeded American Mardy Fishy, who shocked world number two and second seed Rafael Nadal, for a place in the final.

"It is good when you win to get it out of the way," Murray said of his early wake up call for the 11am match. "I managed to get through and look forward to the next one."

Murray said he was happy to see his game improving with the start of the US Open approaching on August 29.

"It's good," he said. "I think this court is pretty similar to the US Open."

In the other men's quarter-finals on Friday, world number one Novak Djokovic beat French sixth seed Gael Monfils and world number three Roger Federer was upset by sixth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych.