Tennis: Murray advances to Dubai Open quarters

DUBAI: Andy Murray's bid to push on from one of the best performances of his career carried him into the quarter-finals of the Dubai Open with a solid win here Wednesday.

The world number four from Scotland overcame Marco Chiudinelli, the third best Swiss player, by 6-3, 6-4, taking him to within one win of a possible rematch with Novak Djokovic.

Last month Murray was close to halting the world number one in the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Now in his first tournament since then, he suggested he may be re-building momentum.

Murray established an early break of serve against Chiudinelli to reach 3-1 and consolidated the lead well, serving well and moving better than he had the day before against Michael Berrer.

Then the three-time Grand Slam finalist had complained of feeling unwell, and had gone 3-4 down in the second set against the German. But this time against an opponent ranked outside the top 100, Murray was never in trouble.

He almost broke serve again in the first game of the second set, and earned another break point in the seventh game, only for Chiudinelli to play those points well.

But in the ninth game Murray produced some of his most cogent and controlled rallying, outmanoeuvring his oppoent to reach love-40 and then converting the second break point by luring Chiudinelli into over-hitting.

Murray then closed the match out by winning his service game to 15 and told the crowd how training in Florida had helped him cope with the rising Dubai temperatures, in the nineties on court.

He was also able to commiserate with coach Ivan Lendl, who was still in Florida, losing the final of the Champions Tour event at Delray Beach, to Carlos Moya, a much younger former world number one.

However he congratulated his elder brother Jamie Murray on his doubles win in partnership with Paul Hanley on a nearby court. They overcame Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Jean-Julien Rojer of The Netherlands by 4-6, 7-6(12), 10-6. (AFP)