Andy Murray kept his nerve to reach the quarter-finals at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha with a narrow victory over fourth seed Alexander Zverev.
Murray came through a final-set tie-break to beat Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego in the opening round, with the Scot having to dig deep again to claim a hard-fought 7-6 2-6 7-5 victory over Zverev in Doha.
Zverev battled back from losing opening set in a tie-break to claim an early break in the second on his way to taking the last-16 clash to a decider, where Murray was twice two points from defeat when he served to stay in the match during the 10th game of the final set.
Murray survived to level at 5-5 and broke the former world No 2 in the next, before closing out another impressive win in a match lasting over three hours.
“It makes a big difference for the players when we come and get a lot of energy and a great atmosphere from the crowd,” Murray said after the match. “Hopefully that continues the rest of the week, but I obviously enjoyed playing in that atmosphere tonight.”
The 35-year-old will face French qualifier Alexandre Muller in the last eight, who upset eighth seed Botic van de Zandschulp 6-2 6-4.
Rublev and Auger-Aliassime survive scares
Second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime fought back from a set down to beat Australian Jason Kubler 4-6 6-1 6-4 and reach the quarter-finals.
The Canadian recovered after a slow start to reach the last eight after two hours and 16 minutes on court in his Doha debut.
Auger-Aliasime will meet seventh seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina for a place in the semi-finals, while top seed Andrey Rublev saved three match points on the way to a three-set win over Tallon Griekspoor.
Rublev, who won this event in 2020, lost Wednesday’s opening set 6-1 in just 22 minutes, but took the second by the same scoreline to level the match.
Russia’s Rublev was broken in his first service game of the deciding set and Griekspoor went on to serve for the match at 5-4 up, but the Dutchman failed to convert his chances. Rublev broke back and went on to win ensuing tie-break for a 1-6 6-1 7-6 victory, setting up a quarter-final meeting with Czech Jiri Lehecka.
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