DOHA (AFP) - Andy Murray, the 20-year-old Briton who hopes to climb up the top ten during 2008, was forced to endure a worrying 40 minutes and to dig deep into his armoury before reaching the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open.
Murray won 1-6, 6-0, 6-1 against Rainer Schuttler, who only managed to get into the tournament on a wild card, but who for one set played as well as he had while winning the title here back in 1999.
The former world number four from Germany hit the ball hard and flat and won so many of the aggressive exchanges that eventually Murray felt the need to change his tactics.
He did that by introducing more slice as well as topspin in the rallies and sometimes bringing Schuttler forward. Eventually he got completely on top, delivering some thunderous serves as he did so.
"He played really well and sometimes at this level you can get outplayed for a while," Murray said.
"But once I got a break early in the second set I felt more relaxed."
So much so, that from moments of tension when it seemed Schuttler might pressurize the Murray serve enough to break it for a third time, the third seed worked up an impressive momentum, taking nine games in a row.
There was just one moment, when Schuttler got Murray at break point down in the fifth game of the final set, that it seemed he might swing the match back his way. But Murray produced three fine first serves and scotched the threat.
He next plays Thomas Johansson, the former Australian Open champion from Sweden, who won 6-3, 7-5 against another German, Michael Berrer, whose improvement has brought him close to the top 50 for the first time.
The winner is likely to play the top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who won well for the second day in a row, overcoming another former titleholder, Fabrice Santoro, 6-3, 6-3.
The Russian struck the ball well, despite the mixtures with which the Frenchman tried to disrupt his rhythm, and has so far dropped only nine games in four sets.
" I'm pleased," Davydenko said.
"I haven't just come here for practice for the Australian Open. This is an important tournament and there are quite a lot of ranking points at stake. I want to win it and then I will have more confidence for Australia."
While Davydenko tries to do that, Santoro will fly to the Sydney International tomorrow to prepare for what will be a world record 62nd Grand Slam at the Australian Open the week after next - though the 35-year-old admitted that he has some fears about the Melbourne heat.
A third German to depart the tournament was Nicolas Kiefer, who withdrew from his match against eighth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov because of a shoulder problem.
The California-based Tursunov now has an all-Russian clash against Davydenko, who said of the match: "For me it should be no problem."
Another to receive a walk-over was the defending champion Ivan Ljubicic, who was left with another practice day when Janko Tipsarevic, the improving Serb, withdrew with a fever.
The fourth-seeded Croat will instead continue his defence with an encounter against Philipp Kohlschreiber, whose 6-4, 6-1 success against Italy's Filippo Volandri at least gave the Germans something to feel cheerful about.
