Murray Reaches Qatar Open S’final

Andy Murray progressed to the Qatar Open semi-finals by beating Spain’s Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.
The top seed was broken in his opening service game by 31-year-old Almagro, ranked 44th in the world, but recovered to take the first set tie-break.

The pair exchanged breaks early in the second set before Murray prevailed.
Murray will face either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Tomas Berdych in the semis and, if he progresses, could meet Novak Djokovic in Saturday’s final.

Djokovic, whom Murray replaced as world number one in November, beat veteran Radek Stepanek 6-3 6-3 in their quarter-final to book a meeting with Fernando Verdasco of Spain in the last four.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Aljaz Bedene beat Slovakia’s Martin Klizan to reach the quarter-finals of the Chennai Open in India.

And Australia’s Nick Kyrgios was beaten 6-2 6-2 by Jack Sock at the mixed teams Hopman Cup, in the tie between Australia and the United States.

Kyrigos was defeated in under an hour and later pulled out of the mixed doubles event with a knee problem.
His injury comes less than two weeks before the Australian Open – the first Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne.

Elsewhere yesterday, British number one Johanna Konta continued her good start to 2017 by reaching the semi-finals of the Shenzhen Open in China.

The world number 10 defeated Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic, ranked 60th, 6-4 6-7 (11-13) 6-3.
Her next opponent will be another Czech, Katerina Siniakova, who beat Serbian Nina Stojanovic 6-3 6-4.
Konta is now the highest-ranked player left in the event after world number three Agnieszka Radwanska’s exit.

The Polish top seed was beaten 6-2 3-6 6-0 by American world number 39 Alison Riske, who will face Camila Giorgi of Italy in the last four.

Konta looked in control early on against her opponent – the twin sister of world number six Karolina Pliskova – as she took the first set with a single break of serve.

Neither player could force a break point in the second set and in the resulting tie-break Konta wasted two match points before the big-serving Pliskova levelled the match on her fifth set point.
But Konta stayed firm in the final set, claiming the break and reaching the semi-final on her fifth match point.

“I am very happy to have extended my stay here,” she said.
“She is one of the best servers on tour so I knew I was going to have a hard time on her service games. I was very happy I was able to get that break in the third and see it out in the end.”