Andy Murray began his preparation for the 2009 ATP season with a victory over American James Blake in Abu Dhabi, to set up a semi-final clash with Roger Federer.

The British number one won 6-2, 6-2 in his opening match at the three-day exhibition in the UAE. Displaying a stunning array of groundstrokes from the baseline, Murray dominated Blake and was never in trouble, breaking him twice in each set and wrapping up the match in less than an hour.

Murray will now face world number two Federer on Friday. The Swiss and Rafael Nadal, the world number one, had byes into the last four, with the Spaniard set to face Nikolay Davydenko after the Russian beat Andy Roddick 6-4 6-4.

Murray, who beat Federer three times in 2008 in four matches, said: "I was playing James for the first time in three years and I expected it to be a tough match, but I played much better than I expected to. This is the first match of the year and I am delighted with how I played.

"I am sure I will have a fun match with Roger tomorrow. I did quite well against him last year, but this is a new season. With all the top players here, this is a great preparation for the Australian Open later this month."

Murray lost to Federer in the final of last year's US Open but got the better of the Swiss in their last two competitive meetings - at the Masters Series event in Madrid and the Masters Cup in Shanghai.

Davydenko, the Russian world number five, set up a meeting with Nadal after a comfortable win over Roddick.

The American's normally reliable first serve was off target, and Roddick had only one break point against Davydenko in the entire match, which he failed to convert.

"Nikolay played a great game. I could have done better, but this was just my first match of the year. Hopefully, the game will be much better than what it was today," Roddick said.

The knockout tournament is worth $250,000 to the winner on Saturday evening.