Murray scrapes through to semis

ANDY Murray will face Tomas Berdych in the semi-finals of the Qatar Open after scraping past Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (7/4) 7-5.

The world No 1 began slowly in Doha, losing the opening four points as he was broken in the first game by the unseeded Spaniard, before recovering to clinch the first set on a tie-break

Murray cut a frustrated figure for most of the match, not helped by the resilience of the world No 44 but he regained sufficient composure to break Almagro in the 11th game of the second set and then serve his way into the final four.

Third seed Berdych took considerably less time to secure his progression against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The Czech needed just over an hour and a half to see off the Frenchman 7-5 6-3 and will now look to beat Murray for the first time in seven meetings.

World No 2 Novak Djokovic will play Fernando Verdasco in the other semi-final after cruising past veteran qualifier Radek Stepanek.

The Serb won 6-3 6-3 against 38-year-old Czech Stepanek, while Spaniard Verdasco also came through in straight sets, defeating Croatian sixth seed Ivo Karlovic 6-2 7-5.

FOURTEEN-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal will face top seed Milos Raonic in the last eight of the Brisbane International following an emphatic win over Mischa Zverev. The Spaniard sealed a 6-1 6-1 win.

Raonic also had little trouble progressing, seeing off Diego Schwartzman 6-2 6-4.

In the other quarterfinal in the top half of the draw, Dominic Thiem will meet Grigor Dimitrov after beating Sam Groth 7-6 (7/5) 6-3. Dimitrov won 6-2 6-4 against Nicolas Mahut.

IN the Aircel Chennai Open, British No 4 Aljaz Bedene secured his quarter-final spot with a 7-6 (7/3) 6-7 (3/7) 7-6 (7/2) win over Martin Klizan.