ANDY Murray took great satisfaction from his straightsets victory over clay-court specialist Tommy Robredo as the world number three progressed to the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open in impressive fashion.

Murray may be the defending champion here, and also 14 places above Robredo in the world rankings, but the Scot knew he had his work cut out to overcome the Spanish ace in front of his home fans and on his preferred surface.

Prior to this match, Robredo had won two tournaments and recorded an ATP Tourleading 21 victories on clay this year, compared to only four match triumphs for Murray.

Robredo had also won two of his previous three meetings against Murray, and the one match he lost – at Indian Wells earlier this year – he had to retire with a wrist injury.

It promised to be a stiff examination for Murray on his least-favoured surface but the Scot came through with flying colours as he overcame a slow start to record an ultimately convincing 7-5 6-1 win in one hour and 43 minutes.

‘‘I’m very happy with the result, he’s one of the top clay-court players,’’ said Murray.

‘‘He’s made the second week on the French Open clay quite a few times. He’s obviously not at the same level as (Rafael) Nadal, but not many guys are.

‘‘He gives lots of guys tough matches and I know he’s stopped working with his coach for the last few weeks, so maybe he’s struggling a bit with that, but at the start of the year he was playing very well on clay. ’’ Murray, who turns 22 today, is still hunting for his first title on clay having recorded all 11 of his tournament victories on hard courts – including this event seven months ago before it switched venues.