Monitoring Desk<\/p>\n
Andy Murray saved seven match points in a 31-minute second-set tie-break before beating Philipp Kohlschreiber in the Dubai Championships quarter-finals.
\nThe world number one needed eight set points to edge the German 20-18 in the tie-break and level the match.
\nNo men’s tour-level match has featured a tie-break with more than 38 points since 1991 – six have finished 20-18.
\nMurray then raced to victory in only 30 minutes in the final set to win 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (20-18) 6-1.
\nThe Briton, who said he had “never played a tie-break like that in my life”, will face number seven seed Lucas Pouille in the last four on Friday.
\nThe Frenchman beat Roger Federer’s conqueror EvgenyDonskoy 6-4 5-7 7-6 (7-2). Fernando Verdasco and Robin Haase will meet in the other last-four tie.
\nMurray, who is playing his first tournament since his fourth-round defeat at the Australian Open in January, looked out of sorts in the first set and served two double faults as he lost the tie-break 7-4.
\nThe 29-year-old broke early in the second and seemed to be cruising, but Kohlschreiber, who was scoring consistently with his forehand, had other ideas and broke back as the Scot served for the set.
\nIt was the German who faltered first in the tie-break and Murray had four set points before Kohlschreiber went ahead at 9-8.
\nA stubborn Murray played some inspired tennis to stay in the match, including a stunning cross-court drop shot to save the first match point, while the German sent numerous groundstrokes wide on further chances to secure the match. In the end Murray was able to capitalise on Kohlschreiber’s wastefulness to level.
\nKohlschreiber capitulated in the final set as Murray broke twice to race to victory in a set that lasted a minute less than the second set tie-break.
\n“I’ve never played a tie-break like that ever, not in juniors, nothing has been close to that,” said Murray. “I’ll probably never play another one like that again. I’ve been playing on the tour for 11, 12 years now and nothing, nothing’s been close to that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monitoring Desk Andy Murray saved seven match points in a 31-minute second-set tie-break before beating Philipp Kohlschreiber in the Dubai Championships quarter-finals. The world number one needed eight set points to edge the German 20-18 in the tie-break and level the match. No men’s tour-level match has featured a tie-break with more than 38 points […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n