Andy Murray cruised through to the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome with a 6-0 6-4 victory over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Murray, who will return to world number two next week after Roger Federer's third-round defeat to Dominic Thiem, raced through the opening set but was made to work harder in the second before seeing out the match in 77 minutes.
World number 32 Chardy made a better fist of it after failing to take a game off Murray in the first set with the Scot producing a virtually error-free display.
Lapses in concentration from Murray let Chardy back into the match in the second set, but from 3-4 down the world number three broke his opponent twice, winning three straight games to secure his place in the last eight.
Murray won 87 per cent of the points when landing his first serve and after losing to world number one Novak Djokovic in the final of the Madrid Open last week is maintaining his form on clay ahead of the French Open, this year's second grand slam, which is due to start in 10 days.
Federer's loss to Thiem means Murray will return to the number two spot behind Djokovic.
The Swiss, struggling to overcome a back injury which could threaten his participation at Roland Garros, overtook Murray on Monday after the British number one narrowly failed to defend his Madrid Open title.
But Federer knew he needed to at least match his final appearance at the Masters tournament 12 months ago to have a chance of preventing Murray taking the place straight back.
Source: PA
