Murray mashes Swede to reach Doha semi-finals
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Andy Murray came through an attritional first set to book his place in the semi-finals of the Qatar Open with a 7-6, 6-0 victory over the Swede Thomas Johansson.
It sets up a meeting with either Nikolay Davydenko or Dmitri Tursunov as the Scot looks to reach his second successive final in Doha having been runner-up to Ivan Ljubicic 12 months ago.
Every game in the first set went with serve, although Murray had to come back from love-30 down to rescue his first trip to the baseline. The Scot's first break point did not come until the seventh game, but he was unable to finish the job and Johansson recovered. A service game to love lifted Britain's No 1 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, 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 next set as Murray claimed a 2-0 lead and from that point he was coasting as two further breaks saw the 20-year-old Scot race to victory.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments