The previous time Andy Murray played Nicolas Mahut, of France, in the Pacific Life Open, in California, last year, the Scot was a comprehensive winner. Yesterday, it was an awful lot closer but the British No 1 still came out on top in a high quality quarter-final of the Open 13.

Having struggled through his opening two matches, Murray was focused right from the start against the world No 44, serving superbly and taking his chances when they presented themselves, to clinch a 7-5, 7-6 victory and set up a semi-final today against another Frenchman, Paul-Henri Mathieu, the No 8 seed.

Mahut, like so many of the French players, is a fluid mover and creative shot-maker but the shot of the match came from Murray in the ninth game when he leapt acrobatically to smash back a Mahut smash from almost over his left shoulder.

That one clearly pleased Murray and he admitted sneaking a peak at the replay on the big screen at the next change of ends. “I saw it when I sat down,” he said. “It’s actually one of the best shots I’ve played. I’ve played quite a few good ones in the last couple of years but when I was moving back it was sort of over my other shoulder, and I managed to knock it back for a winner. Yeah, that was a good shot.”

Mahut saved a break point in the second game and the set stayed on serve until the twelfth game, when a double fault handed Murray set point. The No 4 seed needed no second invitation, forcing Mahut to overhit a backhand volley to move ahead.

The Scot’s only moment of danger on serve came in the third game of the second set and the yell of “yeah” when Mahut framed a backhand wide said a lot for his intensity. After a Pete Sampras-like purple patch — he served six aces in seven points at one stage — he forced two match points on the Mahut serve at 5-4 only for the Frenchman to hold and eventually force a tie-break, but Murray came from 2-0 down to take it 7-5.

“I didn’t serve well in my last two matches and today I served really, really well,” Murray said. “I think I faced one break point in the whole match.

“It’s something I worked on a lot when I got back from Australia. I changed my service technique a little bit, changed the stance and the ball toss. It takes time to put it into the match. That’s how well I can serve and when I serve like that I have one of the best serves in the game, but actually doing it consistently [is another matter]. Once I do, I think it’s going to make a big difference.”

Murray described the crowd as “very fair” but they are sure to be pulling for Mathieu in today’s semi-final. Mathieu took out Novak Djokovic’s conqueror last night, beating Gilles Simon, his compatriot, 6-3, 6-4. It was a convincing display, in which he overpowered the defending champion to advance to the last four. Murray said that he did not expect to have everything his own way. “I beat Mathieu in three sets [in the Masters event in Miami last year] but it’s going to be a difficult match because he’s had a good start to the year as well,” he said.