Marcos was in a hurry to book his spot in the quarter-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. He needed just 66 minutes to dispatch Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-2, firing six aces and denying all five break points faced.
Marcos, who won 92 per cent of first serve points in a first round win over Viktor Troicki, followed that up with an equally impressive 84 per cent against Pospisil. He had his back against the wall at 0/40 in the sixth game of the opening set, but would claim the next five points to hold and grab the momentum. A break to love for 5-4 would eventually secure the first set and he did not look back, reeling off four straight games to open the second. He prevailed on his first match point.
Marcos will look to equal his best result in Dubai from 2010, when he faces fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut with a semi-final berth at stake. The Spaniard has won two ATP World Tour titles this year, in Auckland and Sofia. This will be their first meeting, which will be the second match on Centre Court on Thursday.
