Doha, Feb 24 (IANS) Britain’s Andy Murray, who has been labelled as ‘The Marathon Man’ due to his epic exploits of late, roared back from a set down to beat Alexandre Muller of France to sail into the semifinals of Qatar Open, here.
Murray produced a fine comeback to beat the Frenchman 4-6 6-1, 6-2 in a two hours and four minutes encounter at ATP 250 tournament on Thursday night.
In Friday’s semifinal, which will be the first Murray has reached on the ATP Tour since June 2022, former world no 1 will seek the elusive straight-sets win against Australian Open quarterfinalist Jiri Lehecka, who has stunned top seed Andrey Rublev in three sets, 4-6 6-4 6-3 to enter the last four stage of the tournament.
The 35-year-old Brit has notched five ATP Tour victories this year. Each one of them was won in a deciding set.
After a pair of marathon five-setters at the Australian Open, the Scot opened his Doha campaign Monday by saving three match points in another come-from-behind effort, a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4) win against Lorenzo Sonego that required two hours, 30 minutes.
On Wednesday, he was on the court for more than three hours in a 7-6(5), 2-6, 7-5 upset of Alexander Zverev of Germany.
–IANS
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