(Tennis news) Despite losing the opening set, Andy Murray fought back valiantly to secure a 4-6 6-1 6-2 win over Jiri Lehecka in two hours and three minutes. The 35 year old has already defeated Alexander Zverev in the previous round and remains on course to secure his third title in Doha but will first need to defeat Czech youngster Jiri Lehecka in the semi-finals.
Speaking after the match, Andy Murray said “I had to start going for my shots a lot more. The first set I wasn’t doing enough with the ball and he was dictating a lot of the points and making me do a lot of running. I’ve obviously played a lot of tennis the last few days and that wasn’t going to give me the best chance to win the match, so I stepped up and started taking a few more chances. I was trying to come to the net when I got my opportunity and managed to turn it around.”
Murray, ranked 70, broke Muller’s serve in the first set to take a 2-0 lead but to everyone’s surprise the qualifier dominated the opening set with some fantastic heavy ball striking. The Scottish tennis player was outplayed from the baseline and squandered two break points at 3-4 down in the eighth game while Muller made it 6-4 after 53 minutes, maintaining a high level of intensity. However, Murray fought back in the second set and broke Muller to take a 5-0 lead. Muller managed to hold his serve but Murray went on to take the second set 6-1 in 30 minutes to level the match.
In the deciding set, Murray was made to work considerably harder and despite his age managed to maintain fantastic consistency and produced some brilliant tennis, going on to break Muller twice before securing the win. He last won the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in 2017, defeating Fernando Verdasco, which was his last title before his hip problems began. The Scottish player will now take on Czech world No 53 Lehecka, who upset top seed Andrey Rublev 4-6 6-4 6-3 earlier on Thursday.
Speaking after his match, Lehecka said “These past two months have been very great for me. I was very looking forward to playing here in Doha on this beautiful centre court, so I am very happy with the win and looking forward to tomorrow. I have improved everything. Mostly my mentality on the court. I gained confidence from Next Gen and now I have learnt how to use it. He’s (Murray) started the year extremely well, and had a great run at the Australian Open. He’s one of the best young players on Tour.”
He holds an 11-3 record this year, reaching the quarterfinal of the Australian Open where he won his first top 10 match against Felix Auger-Aliassime. In other results, Daniil Medvedev overcame Christopher O’Connell 6-2 4-6 7-5 to reach the last four and will now take on Canadian Auger-Aliassime, who beat Davidovich Fokina 6-4 7-6 (7-5).
Also read: Andy Murray defeats Alexander Zverev to reach Qatar Open quarterfinals
