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Murray digs in to take out Berdych

Andy Murray had to work hard for victory over Tomas Berdych © PA Photos

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Andy Murray secured his first win over Tomas Berdych since 2005 with a 6-3 7-5 victory at the Dubai Duty Free Championship.

The British No. 1 came close to bowing out in the first round when battling through illness to beat Michael Berrer, but he was far more polished against Marco Chiudinelli.

The threat posed by Berdych was on paper a bigger one, as Murray had lost three of their four career meetings, but the Czech rarely threatened to claim victory as Murray set up a likely semi-final meeting with Novak Djokovic.

Murray set out his stall with a love service hold and a string of errors from Berdych in his opening service game handed the Brit three break points. He got a read on a service on the third of those and a powerful return secured the break.

Murray saved two break points in the third game, with Berdych paying the price for not attacking a backhand return.

Berdych got on the board in the fourth game, but despite having openings he failed to exert any real pressure on the Murray serve and the Scot secured the set in 42 minutes courtesy of a brilliant backhand down the line.

Murray produced a carbon-copy start to the second set as the first by breaking Berdych in his opening service game. But instead of ramming home his advantage, he let his opponent back in and a double fault put Berdych back on level terms.

Further breaks of serve were traded, with Murray rather worryingly spending time between points stretching his right leg.

He shrugged off the fitness worries to break through for a third time, aided by some sloppy play by his opponent and Murray's unswerving desire to chase down every ball which was in evidence on break point when he repeatedly tracked wide balls and was rewarded when Berdych threw a forehand into the net.

Murray passed up six match points but got the job done at the seventh time of asking, although the match ended on a sour note as Berdych had a heated exchange with the umpire over a disputed call in the concluding game.

Event organisers were rewarded with the semi-final they craved as Novak Djokovic beat fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-1 7-6(6).

It was not as easy as it looked like it was going to be at one stage. Djokovic raced through the opening set, breaking on two occasions, but his friend and rival stepped things up in the second set to force a breaker.

Tipsarevic got his nose in front with an early mini-break but passed up his chance to force a decider when double faulting on set point and Djokovic stepped in to claim the win.

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