Andy Murray seals Qatar semi-final spot after win over Alexandre Müller

Andy Murray will face Jiri Lehecka in the Qatar Open semi-finals after beating the French qualifier Alexandre Müller in three sets.

Murray hit back strongly after losing the opening set to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in two hours and three minutes against Müller, who defied his world ranking of 170 early in the match. The 35-year-old Scot, who knocked out the German fourth seed, Alexander Zverev, in the previous round, was forced to produce some of his best tennis again as he stayed on course for his third title in Doha.

Murray told Amazon Prime in his on-court interview: “I had to start going for my shots a lot more. The first set I wasn’t doing enough with the ball and he was dictating a lot of the points and making me do a lot of running. I’ve obviously played a lot of tennis the last few days and that wasn’t going to give me the best chance to win the match, so I stepped up and started taking a few more chances. I was trying to come to the net when I got my opportunity and managed to turn it round.”

Murray beat Fernando Verdasco in the Doha final in 2017 – his last title before hip problems struck that summer – and now faces the Czech Republic’s world No 52 Lehecka, who upset the top seed, Andrey Rublev, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 earlier on Thursday.

Murray, currently world No 70, broke Müller’s opening service game to lead 2-0, but the qualifier went on to dominate the opening set with some outstanding heavy ball-striking. The Scot, who was being out-hit from the baseline, spurned two break points at 3-4 down in the eighth game and Müller served out to take it 6-4 after 53 minutes as his level never dropped.

Murray appeared to get to grips with his opponent in the second set, taking the game to the Frenchman and breaking him twice to