Great Britain's tennis star Andy Murray cruised to the quarterfinal stage of the 2016 China Open in Beijing after scoring an impressive third round victory over Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old two-time British tennis ace displayed his dominance over the Russian player with straight-set 6-2, 6-1 win to book a quarterfinal showdown against his fellow British tennis player and Davis Cup teammate Kyle Edmund, according to Tennis.com.

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The victory was Murray's 11^th final eight appearance of the season and moved him another step closer to his goal of reaching the No. 1 spot in the world rankings.

Murray is currently ranked No. 2 in the latest ATP world ranking result and a favorable result, in the Beijing-based tennis tournament would mean narrowing the gap in obtaining his goal.

"I think obviously trying to reach No. 1 is a goal," Murray said. "I think most of the players that are near the top of the game would like that. I've never been there. It's something I would like to do for the first time, which is maybe more of a motivation for me than some of the guys that have been there before."

Meanwhile, the ruling WTA world No. 1 Angelique Kerber of Germany defeated Czech Republic's Barbora Strycova to advance to the third round of the ongoing tennis event. Kerber, 28, prevailed over the Czech player with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) triumph.

The German tennis superstar will be facing Elina Svitolina of Ukraine for a place in the quarterfinals of the competition.

Tagsandy murray, Novak Djokovic, ATP World Tour, wta, China Open