Murray breezes past gritty Sousa despite stifling heat

Andy Murray reached the last 16 of the Western & Southern Open after shrugging off humid conditions in Cincinnati to beat Joao Sousa.

The world No 9, whose Wimbledon title defence ended at the quarter-final stage, encountered a major obstacle on his road to redemption when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga dumped him out of the ATP Rogers Cup last week in Toronto.

But the Scot took that setback in his stride and, despite playing in 63% humidity at the Lindner Family Tennis Centre, made light work of Portugal’s Sousa, winning 6-3 6-3.

Murray won the three opening games in less than 10 minutes but Sousa — the world No 37 — finally held after the advantage changed hands numerous times during the fourth game.

There was an exchange of games before Sousa broke Murray for the first time, yet the Scot was not for turning and wrapped up the first set before 40 minutes lit up on the scoreboard.

Although Sousa frustrated Murray at 2-1 in the second set and eked out two more games, Murray was in cruise control despite the Cincinnati heat and breezed to victory.