Andy Murray made an impressive start in his bid to retain the Qatar Open as he beat Spain's Albert Montanes 6-2, 6-4 in the first round of the tournament.

Murray displayed fleeting glimpses of the form he showed to beat Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to clinch the World Tennis Championship title in Abu Dhabi last week, and broke his opponent's serve four times in a comfortable victory.

In front of a sparse crowd, Murray wasted two chances to break Montanes' serve in the first game but the Spaniard double-faulted in the third to give the Scot his first break.

The British No 1's play was sluggish to start with but a combination of clever drop shots and unforced errors from his opponent saw Murray break Montanes again to take a 5-2 lead.

The Spaniard was then allowed back into the match by Murray, as he gifted the world No 43 four break points. Montanes failed to take advantage though, and the Scot clinched the set 6-2 after his opponent sent a forehand long.

The second set began with Murray immediately breaking Montanes' serve before closing out his first service game to love with a sliced drop shot to take a 2-0 lead. Murray broke again in the third before taking his fifth straight game and move into a 4-0 lead.

The Scot then became frustrated, however, and started to make mistakes as he allowed his opponent to win three successive games before holding his serve to make it 5-3.

Montanes held again, leaving Murray to serve out to love to set up a second-round tie with Germany's Philipp Petzschner.