Murray seals semi spot

Making his first appearance at the season-ending eight-man tournament, world number four Murray followed up his opening win over American Andy Roddick to advance to the last four with a match to spare after producing an impressive display at Qi Zhong Tennis Stadium.

After shocking two-time defending champion Roger Federer on his Masters Cup debut on Monday, Simon still has a chance to advance from the red group, which now also contains world number 27 Radek Stepanek after Roddick was forced to withdraw with an ankle injury on Wednesday.

Murray completely dominated against Simon and raced to the finish line, avoiding the second-set collapse witnessed against Roddick.

He raced out of the blocks and broke Simon twice at the start of the match and, after surviving a resurgence from the Frenchman, who he beat to win the Madrid Masters, battled to win the first set.

Murray imploded in the second set of his opening-round win over Roddick, and was forced to battle through his first service game of the second set as Simon threatened with three break points.

But each time he came undone at the crucial moment with several rash errors, which had seen him convert only one break point out of eight.

Murray's third break of the match followed as Simon sent three wayward forehands wide before a straightforward service game handed Murray a 3-1 lead.

Simon continued to ship errors as Murray again broke the Frenchman's serve at the third time of asking.

With the match on the line at 5-1, Simon held, but it only delayed the inevitable as Murray sealed victory in one hour and 33 minutes.