Djokovic ends Murray winning streak in Doha epic

“It’s exciting, you obviously want to start the year off in the best possible way, that’s three wins out of three”, said Djokovic immediately afterwards. Novak had the match in his hands, serving for the win in the 10th game of the second set, but he wasted 3 match points and let Murray returning to the match completely.

“He turned it around, and I thought “wow, I hope this is not payback time”.

Austrian Thiem came through a first-set tie-break to eventually beat Australian Sam Groth 7-6 (7/5) 6-3, while Bulgarian Dimitrov was a 6-2 6-4 victor against Nicolas Mahut.

There was no repeat of the second set comeback from the Brit and Djokovic battled from 0-30 down to hold and defend his Doha title.

“Definitely one of the best ways to start the year”. We’re both going to need a little time to recover.

Djokovic and Verdasco met in last year’s tournament, with the former number one dropping just four games.

In the second set, Djokovic broke Murray in the seventh game and looked on course to claim the set and the match. Djokovic again faltered under pressure and barely won as the better player, but ultimately he did win and has been essentially unbeatable in Melbourne.

“I played him at the end of past year and he was playing super aggressive there so I kind of expected that a little bit tonight”. He took the first game of the third set after dancing towards the net, and Djokovic looking shakey.

Murray finally capitalized on his fourth break point – second in that 10th game – with an inside out forehand victor. I just tried to make him play an extra shot, he was playing very well.

On Friday in the semifinals, Murray will face Tomas Berdych, while Novak Djokovic will take on Fernando Verdasco.

“I played a great match”, said Nadal. Djokovic regained his range and re-established control after saving a break point in the sixth game.

Djokovic has never lost to Murray after winning the opening set of a match, with this their 36th meeting. The returner finally got some luck as Murray earned the first break point of the set.