 Murray was the winner of last week's Montreal Masters |
Andy Murray began the defence of his Cincinnati Masters title with an impressive 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 win over Spain's Nicolas Almagro.
The world number two was made to work hard in the opening set but came through strongly in the! tie-break.
But Murray, 22, looked in more control in the second set and will now face Radek Stepanek, who beat Marat Safin.
World number one Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic also advanced but Andy Roddick lost to Sam Querrey.
Murray, who won the Montreal Masters on Sunday, made a strong start by taking his first three service games to love.
But Almagro, 23, combined ferocious drives with subtlety, forcing Murray to serve to stay in the opening set.
The Scot saved a set point as three unanswerable serves drew the match level at 6-6 and forced a tie-break.
Almagro put a shot just wide and netted to send Murray 3-0 up and the number three seed looked comfortable from then on.
He broke Almagro in the second game of the second set and a fine passing shot saw him take a 3-0 lead.
The match then continued on serve until game eight, when Murray engineered three match points and wrapped up victory when Almagro went long.
"He served great in the first set, he was up at 72-75% on the first serve which is a big serve," said Murray.
"The second serve is very solid as well so I struggled a bit, the conditions were quick. Once I hung in in the first set I felt a lot better on the second."
Looking ahead to his meeting with Stepanek, Murray added: "He's a tricky player, he serves and volleys a lot and if I return well I've got a good chance.
"He tries to mix things up, he's a very dif! ferent player to a lot of the guys on the tour.
"You've got to stay focused against him because he tries a few mind games. So I'll try and deal with that."
Federer clinched a 6-3 7-5 win over Argentine Jose Acasuso, while world number three Nadal continued his comeback from injury by edging out Italy's Andreas Seppi 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3).
Though pleased with the effort and the absence of any pain in his knees, second seed Nadal immediately wrote off his title chances.
