Andy Murray will be hoping to step up a gear in Friday’s quarter-finals.

After his dominating first round performance earlier in the week, Murray showed signs of rust in his second round win against Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer. Murray looked in trouble when he dropped the second set against Mayer with a flood of unforced errors but recovered to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Murray wasn’t too concerned afterwards, admitting that he’s mainly viewing this week as a warm-up for the Paris Masters. "I wanted to try and play matches before Paris just to see where I was at," he said. "If I'd lost after two and a half hours, I would have been disappointed but it turned out to be the perfect match to get myself back in shape."

Murray will need to improve against the flashy Spaniard Albert Montanes but the top seed will be pleased with his draw as he would have been expecting to face David Ferrer at this stage. Ferrer withdrew before his match with Montanes.

Murray has played Montanes twice already this year, winning in straight sets in Doha and Indian Wells. Montanes is a clay-court specialist but he’s also a shot-maker and is very capable of taking the game to Murray and creating chances with his heavy topspin forehand.

Murray is now 11/8 favourite with Paddy Power to go on and win the tournament.

Murray is a big 1/12 favourite to beat Montanes with Sky Bet while the Spaniard’s chances are rated at a lowly 10/1 by bet365.