Andy Murray came through an tough first set to qualify for the semi-finals of the Qatar Open with a 7-6, 6-0 victory over Thomas Johansson.

The victory sets up a meeting with either Nikolay Davydenko or Dmitry Tursunov as the British No 1 looks to reach his second successive final in Doha having been runner-up to Ivan Ljubicic 12 months ago.

Every game in the first set went with serve, although Murray had to come back from love-30 down against the Swede in his first service game. The Scottish player did create a break point in the seventh game but he was not able to convert it.

A service game to love lifted Murray in the next and the pair played out the set to 6-6. Murray then struck early by winning the first point off his opponent's serve and from there on was never behind in the tie-break, eventually winning it 7-4 in 61 minutes.

That gave Murray the impetus he needed and he broke serve for the first time in the second game of the next set. Two further breaks helped him close out the match in a further 21 minutes.