Andy Murray believes his strong start set the tone for his comprehensive straight sets victory over Gilles Simon in the Sony Ericsson Open.

The Dunblane ace beat the Frenchman 6-3 6-4 in Miami to set up a quarter-final clash with Janko Tipsarevic.

Murray won the first game of the match which included a 40-shot rally on the third point.

And the world number four believes that early boost helped spur him on for the rest of the match.

"I felt fine from the start of the match," the British number one told www.atptour.com.

"Probably the first game probably helped with that as well because I saved a couple of break points, there was a lot of long rallies, a lot of moving.

"After that, I kind of loosened up a little bit; felt much better.

"So that first game, even though it was like 17, 18 minutes, was probably a good thing after not playing for a few days."

Simon played well but found the Scot in even better form, pulling off a number of audacious shots.

Murray moved into the net to gain three set points and he made no mistake at the first attempt, firing an ace past his exasperated opponent.

An excellent cross-court drive from Murray secured a break of serve in the fifth game of the second set before another ace ensured Murray’s passage into the next round.