Murray Beats Davydenko to Reach Qatar Final

Andy Murray is within one match of claiming the fourth ATP singles title of his career after putting in a superb performance to sweep past Russia's Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 6-3 in the Qatar Open semi-finals.

The Scot will face Stanislas Wawrinka in tomorrow's final. The Swiss world No36, who is yet to win a tournament despite featuring in two finals last season, surprisingly defeated Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic - the 2007 winner who beat Murray in the final - 7-6, 6-4 in the other semi.

Murray has faced Wawrinka twice before, losing in the Davis Cup in 2005 and, perhaps more pertinently, on the hard court in Miami in April 2006. Nevertheless, Britain's No1 will be confident of improving that record, particularly if he can reproduce the form that accounted for Davydenko, the tournament's No1 seed.

The inauspicious opening gave little hint of what was to come, Murray losing his serve in the very first game of the match to give Davydenko the early impetus. But he broke back midway through the opening set to restore parity at 3-3 and then broke his opponent once more in the 10th game to take the set 6-4.

Having won six of the last eight games in the first set, the momentum was Murray's and he served out the opening game of the second set to love, before breaking the Russian in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead.

Davydenko, though, fought hard, saving two match points from 15-40 and 5-2 down, and then a third from deuce in the same game. His efforts were in vain, however, with Murray securing a straight-sets victory in the following game.