ANDY MURRAY started the new year with a scare as he was pushed to three sets by Australian qualifier John Millman at the Brisbane International but pronounced himself happy with his close-run thing.
Murray shrugged off a second set set-back to triumph 5-1 5-7 6-3 in two hours and five minutes against the world number 199, to set up a quarter-final meeting with Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
Murray said: “I wasn’t too disappointed with the way I played.
“For a first match of the year, that was a perfect match in many ways, to go through some tough moments, a lot of long rallies, close games and important points.”
Murray raced through the opening set with three breaks of the Millman serve but was broken twice in the second as the 23-year-old, playing in only his fifth tour-level match, fought back to take the tie into an unlikely decider.
Fears grew for Murray as he looked in some pain at times in the third set but he managed to claim the solitary break to wrap up a hard-fought victory.
Murray added: “I think it was a pretty high-quality match.
“The first set wasn’t that comfortable. He gained confidence and started going for his shots more.
“He was returning my first serve extremely well and playing right up on the baseline and just going for big shots. It was tough for me to dictate too many of the points.
“I made some adjustments with the way I was serving in the third set that turned it around but he played really, really well for the most part.”
l Top seeds David Ferrer and Richard Gasquet breezed into the semi-finals of the Qatar Open with straightforward wins in Doha.
Spaniard Ferrer, the top seed, brushed aside Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi 6-3 6-0 in just over an hour, breaking four times and not facing a single break point on his own serve.
Second-seeded Frenchman Gasquet crushed Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-1 6-3, breaking five times and dropping his serve once.
However, compatriot Gael Monfils crashed out at the hands of German qualifier Daniel Brands.
The world number 153 won 6-1 7-5.
Russian Nikolay Davydenko completed the semi-final line-up following a 6-1 6-1 triumph over Italy’s Simone Bolelli.