Andy Murray saved his nerve to achieve the quarter-finals on the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha with a slim victory over fourth seed Alexander Zverev.
Murray got here by means of a final-set tie-break to beat Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego within the opening spherical, with the Scot having to dig deep once more to say a hard-fought 7-6 2-6 7-5 victory over Zverev in Doha.
Zverev battled again from dropping opening set in a tie-break to say an early break within the second on his option to taking the last-16 conflict to a decider, the place Murray was twice two factors from defeat when he served to remain within the match in the course of the tenth recreation of the ultimate set.
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Murray was congratulated by Alexander Zverev after his victory
Murray survived to stage at 5-5 and broke the previous world No 2 within the subsequent, earlier than closing out one other spectacular win in a match lasting over three hours.
“It makes a giant distinction for the gamers after we come and get a whole lot of power and an amazing ambiance from the group,” Murray mentioned after the match. “Hopefully that continues the remainder of the week, however I clearly loved taking part in in that ambiance tonight.”
The 35-year-old will face French qualifier Alexandre Muller within the final 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 again from a set right down to beat Australian Jason Kubler 4-6 6-1 6-4 and attain the quarter-finals.
The Canadian recovered after a gradual begin to attain the final eight after two hours and 16 minutes on court docket in his Doha debut.
Auger-Aliasime will meet seventh seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina for a spot within the semi-finals, whereas high seed Andrey Rublev saved three match factors on the way in which to a three-set win over Tallon Griekspoor.
Rublev, who received this occasion in 2020, misplaced Wednesday’s opening set 6-1 in simply 22 minutes, however took the second by the identical scoreline to stage the match.
Russia’s Rublev was damaged in his first service recreation of the deciding set and Griekspoor went on to serve for the match at 5-4 up, however the Dutchman did not convert his probabilities. Rublev broke again and went on to win ensuing tie-break for a 1-6 6-1 7-6 victory, establishing a quarter-final assembly with Czech Jiri Lehecka.
