Andy Murray has sent the tennis world into meltdown after saving five match points to beat Jiri Lehecka and storm into the final in Doha. Murray was down 3-5 in the third set, but pulled off one of the most extraordinary comebacks of his career to prevail 6-0 3-6 7-6 (8-6).
Serving at 3-5, the 35-year-old had to save two match points before Lehecka moved 40-0 up on his own serve in the next game. But Murray somehow managed to fight off all three match points to level the set at 5-5, before beating a shell-shocked Lehecka in the tiebreak.
“I don’t know, that was one of the most amazing turnarounds I’ve had in my career,” the Scot said on Amazon Prime. “I knew it was his first time serving for a final so I had to keep the pressure on because I know how difficult it can be to serve matches like that out, but I have no idea how I managed to turn that one around.”
Murray has now reached the final of the Qatar Open a record five times, winning the title twice. He will play Daniil Medvedev in the final after the Russian beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4 7-6 (9-7) in the other semi-final.
“This tournament has had many great players – (Roger) Federer, (Andy) Roddick, (Rafael) Nadal and Novak (Djokovic),” Murray said. “Those guys have obviously achieved a lot more than me so this is maybe one small win I can have over them.”
Murray said he’d taken a lot out of some narrow defeats last season, adding: “One of the great things about the scoring system in this sport is things can change very quickly. I had multiple conversations with my team in the middle to the end part of last year, and I lost lots of close matches.
“I said, ‘As soon as I start winning some, then that’s going to change quickly because of the law of averages, really, like I couldn’t keep losing that many matches’. If I kept working hard and kept improving just a little bit, then those matches would change. So I’m glad that I was right with that, and I hope it continues.”
