Thiem, Murray Winners In Beijing, Will Meet In QFs; FAA Faces Zverev Thurs.

After a strong opening win over Matteo Berrettini, Andy Murray backed it up edging countryman Cameron Norrie 7-6(6), 6-7(4), 6-1 in a grinding 2 hours, 52 minutes.

“I’m tired, I just had a sleep before coming,” said Murray. “I’m really tired. That’s the first time I’ve had to do that since I came back… It’s something that I need to kind of get used to again, especially playing at this level and that intensity.

“It was a good step for me. It’s great that I won the match. Whether I’d won or lost it, I was able to come out the following day and be competitive and play some good tennis. But obviously I’m happy I’ve got the day off tomorrow to recover.”

The 32-year-old Murray will need the extra day because next on Friday in the quarters is top seed Dominic Thiem who was a 6-3, 6-3 victor over Chinese wildcard Zhizhen Zhang.

Fabio Fognini collected a good win over Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-3. And Karen Khachanov eliminated Jeremy Chardy in two breakers.

Tomorrow, Stefanos Tsitsipas takes on Nikolaz Basilishvili and Canadian star Felix Auger-Aliassime battles Alexander Zverev.