Murray reaches last four in Qatar Open

Andy Murray has booked his place in the semi-finals of the Qatar Open with victory over Sweden’s Thomas Johansson.

The 7-6 (7-4) 6-0 success sets up a meeting with Nikolay Davydenko – the two players met at the same stage in last year’s competition, with the Scot winning that match but losing the Doha final to Ivan Ljubicic.

The British number one was pleased with his performance in the closing stages of today’s match in Doha, after a tough opening set.

He told the tournament’s official website, www.qatartennis.org: “He (Johansson) served unbelievably well in the opening set.

“He won a high percentage of points on his first serve. I expected it to be tough and it was that way.

“But I was more aggressive in the second set. I was also more confident.

“When he (Johansson) served I was aggressive in my returns.

“After the break early in the second game I had the momentum. After that I saw his head go down...”

Murray had lost their only previous meeting in 2005 – and every game in the first set went with serve, although Murray had to come back from 0-30 down to rescue one of them.

The Scot’s first break point did not come until he got advantage in the seventh but he was not able to finish the job and Johansson recovered.

A service game to love lifted Britain’s number one in the next and the pair played out the set to a tie-break.

Murray struck early by winning the first point off his Swedish opponent’s serve and from there on was never behind, eventually winning the tie-break 7-4 and the set in 61 minutes.

That seemed to give him the impetus he needed and Murray closed out the match in a further 21 minutes as Johansson collapsed.

The Swede was broken for the first time in the second game of the set as Murray claimed a 2-0 lead and from that point it was downhill all the way as two further breaks saw the 20-year-old British star race to victory.

Murray is now hoping to go one step further than he did last year, adding: “I am playing well.

“I have put in a lot of efforts coming into the new season.

“I want to carry on and hopefully win the tournament here.”