Sweden’s Robin Soderling delivered a tennis master class in the opening set before eliminating fourth seed Andy Murray 6-1 7-6 in the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells ATP tournament.

The sixth-seeded Swede overwhelmed Murray with a dazzling array of deep top-spin forehands, flat backhands and power serving to race through the first set in just 36 minutes.

Although Soderling wobbled when serving for the match at 5-3 and 30-0 up to be broken for the only time, he recovered to clinch the tiebreak 7-4 when Murray netted a backhand.

“He played very well to start with and I didn’t,” a subdued Murray told reporters. “I didn’t move particularly well. I was hitting the ball really short and he’s obviously got a big game and he was able to dictate all of the points.”

“So from my side it was poor, but he hit the ball really big from the back of the court and served well when he needed to,” added the Scot, who was beaten in last year’s final at Indian Wells by Rafa Nadal.

“I made some mistakes in the tiebreak, and that’s why I lost.”

The Swede punched his right fist into the air in delight and will next face seventh seed Andy Roddick, who powered his way past Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-3 7-5 earlier in the day to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fourth time.