Andy Murray progresses through to last-16 of the Dubai Duty Free Championship with victory over Christopher O'Connell.

Andy Murray progressed through into the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, with a hard-fought 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Christopher O’Connell, in a match that lasted just shy of three hours. Murray headed into the tournament looking to bounce back from last week’s agonising defeat at the hands of Roberto Bautista Agut in Qatar, after being heavily beaten 6-0 6-1 by the Spaniard. Ad/> He entered the main draw of the tournament on a wild card, while O’Connell progressed through two qualifying rounds to set up this match with the Scot.

ATP DohaNew coach looks top priority for Murray after Bautista Agut thrashing16/02/2022 AT 22:32 The Australian is ranked 158th in the world, and impressively managed to reach the third round of his home Grand Slam in Melbourne last month. Despite his lowly ranking, O’Connell gave Murray plenty of cause for concern in a topsy-turvy first set. Both players broke serve once, before it went to a tie break.

The world number 89 succumbed to O’Connell 7-4 – much to Murray’s frustration. New coach looks top priority for Murray after Bautista Agut thrashing Bautista Agut trounces Murray to reach quarter-finals in Doha as Evans also exits But to his relief, the second set was much more straightforward and he raced into a 5-3 lead having only dropped five service points up to that stage. O’Connell looked to had given himself hope of a recovery at 30-0, but Murray went on to win the next four points and claim a 6-3 victory in the second set.