Defending champ Murray eases through in Doha
Andy Murray beats Spain's Albert Montanes in straight sets in Qatar
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Tuesday, 06, Jan 2009 10:42
Andy Murray began the defence of his Qatar Open title in Doha with a comfortable straight-sets victory over Spain's Albert Montanes.
The world number four, who won the season-opening tournament last year and reached the final in 2007, played several excellent points and used his sublime drop-shot to great effect in despatching the Spaniard 6-2 6-4 in little more than an hour.
Coming off the back of a confidence-boosting victory in an Abu Dhabi exhibition event last week, which saw him record back-to-back wins over the world's top two players Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, Murray looked in fine fettle again.
The Scot quickly established a 5-1 lead by breaking Montanes twice in quick succession early in the first set.
Murray was forced to save four break points before finally wrapping up the set, despite his opponent showing the genuine battling qualities the British number one is quickly making his trademark.
The second set looked to be going Murray's way as he easily opened up a 4-0 lead with two more breaks of serve.
And despite a brief fightback from Montanes, who won three successive games, Murray held his nerve to seal his progress in relative comfort.
In the second round, Murray faces German Philipp Petzschner with a possible semi-final against Federer later in the week.