Andy Murray roars back from set down to beat Alexandre Muller and reach semi-finals at ATP Doha

Andy Murray was as doughty as ever as he produced a fine comeback to beat France’s Alexandre Muller in three sets, 4-6 6-1 6-2, at ATP Doha.

Murray, who has again been labelled ‘The Marathon Man’ due to his epic exploits of late, came through yet another gruelling deciding-set battle to prevail in style in Qatar and secure his place in the last four of the ATP 250 event.

Hours later, Murray was in action again – and it was never going to be a straightforward victory given his lack of recovery and the way his matches have been so far in 2023, going back to his incredibly long contests at the Australian Open.

Indeed, all five of the 35-year-old’s victories so far this year have now gone the distance, with this latest triumph being no different. It is the first semi-final Murray has reached on the ATP Tour since June 2022.

The 26-year-old Muller, who is currently ranked at No. 170 in the world, certainly brought the challenge to Murray with an inspired opening set as he produced flashes of brilliance from the back of the court.

While the Brit struggled to get into the match, understandably given his encounter with Zverev the evening before, he swiftly found his groove in the second set and was utterly ruthless for the most part.

Muller could only muster a solitary game as the world No. 70 dominated proceedings with relentless groundstrokes and a dogged determination to not give his opponent another glimmer of an opportunity.

The deciding set went much the same way as the second with Murray dictating the play and quickly establishing his dominance.

After storming to 5-1 with some quite brilliant returning of the Muller serve, the Frenchman did at least manage to muster a second hold to double his tally of games while being very much under the cosh.

Lehecka stunned top seed Andrey Rublev in three sets, 4-6 6-4 6-3, to set up the match with the Brit in the last four of the tournament.

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