Andy Murray absorbed the best of David Goffin and turned in a masterclass performance on Friday to reach the Shanghai Rolex Masters semi-finals with a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
The Scot has now won 16 sets in a row on the ATP World Tour, having come into Shanghai on the back of his fifth tour-level title of the season at the China Open in Beijing, where he did not drop a set all week. Steve Johnson and Lucas Pouille then fell victim to the in-form Scot at the start of his Shanghai campaign.
"There was a lot of long games and tight games where Goffin had chances on my serve but also on his own serve," Murray said. "There was a lot of long rallies, good rallies.
"Even when I lost them, I was back on it the next point. There was one or two games where he was up 40-Love on his serve and I got back and I made him work for all of those games. So I think that paid off as the match went on."
Murray is playing with the motivation of potentially catching Novak Djokovic in the battle for the year-end No. 1 spot in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Victory for Murray on Friday sees the Scot maintain the gap at 1,555 points after Djokovic also won his quarter-final earlier.
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After being thwarted on two break points in the fourth game, Murray pulled away from Goffin as he reeled off four straight games to clinch the opener. Goffin held serve in a 15-minute second game of the second set, saving six break points. But the Belgian was then unable to capitalise on his own break point chances in the fifth game and from there Murray did not drop another game, claiming victory in one hour and 40 minutes.
"Most games were very close," Murray said. "He fought hard and saved a number of break points. I had to stay strong there in the second, because physically, although it was a 6-2, 6-2 match, it wasn't easy because a lot of the points were tough. He plays close up on the baseline, takes the ball early and makes you move a lot."
It was Murray’s fifth win in five meetings with Goffin and he is yet to drop a set to the Belgian.
The 29-year-old Murray is looking for his 13th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title and second of the season, following victory at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome (d. Djokovic).
Goffin was bidding to close the gap on ninth-placed Tomas Berdych in the Emirates ATP Race To London. The Belgian is looking to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the first time and currently finds himself 560 points outside of the qualification spots.
It has been a strong Asian swing for Goffin, who last week reached the final of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016, finishing runner-up to Nick Kygios. The 25 year old has a 45-21 record in 2016.