Murray passes Melzer test

Andy Murray advanced to the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open after battling past Austria’s Gerald Melzer 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 on Wednesday.

Gerald, the younger brother of former world No 8 Jurgen, played his part by handing the world No 1 a serious workout in two hours and 23 minutes.

A passive Murray dropped serve twice in the opening set and world No 68 Melzer saved eight set points with some brave hitting before the Briton took the opener during an intense tie-break.

He then got the break in the seventh game of the second set but failed to claim victory when serving at 5-4 as the 26-year-old left-hander Melzer forced a break of his own.

When the 29-year-old Murray served for the match for the second time he made no mistake to extend his winning streak to 26 matches and stay on track for a third title in Doha.

“He played great, great tennis,” Murray said of Melzer. “He was dominating large parts of the match and dictating a lot of the points and made it extremely difficult.

“If he plays like that this year, he’ll climb higher up the rankings and I was lucky to get through in two sets today.

“We’ve never practised or played against each other before …

continue reading in source www.skysports.com