Andy Murray earned a tortured 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 victory over Fernando Verdasco to reach the quarterfinals of the Dubai Championships on Wednesday, adds Reuters.

Anyone expecting him to sail past the Spanish left-hander after he had earlier beaten Roger Federer was disappointed. The Briton had to battle both the wind and an adventurous opponent for almost two and a half hours before securing victory on his fourth match point. Verdasco was by far the more aggressive player but he lacked consistency on his powerful forehand.

Murray looked flat at the start and it was only when he faced a break point at 2-2 that he jerked into life and began to compete more aggressively. He then broke for 4-2 when his opponent double-faulted and, after holding off two more break points in the next game, he went on to take the set.

A break for 2-0 and two break points saved in the next game gave Verdasco a 3-0 lead in the second set and, although Murray recovered the break in the seventh game, Verdasco broke once more for 5-3.

In the final set, Murray held off two break points at 1-1, broke for 4-2 but then netted a forehand to concede his serve in the next game. Verdasco held a break point at 5-5 but netted a volley, before Murray controlled the tiebreak, building a 6-2 lead before closing out the match by winning a protracted rally. Davydenko beat Czech Republic’s Jan Hernych 6-1, 6-4.

Earlier, Rafael Nadal was stretched to the limit by Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber taking two hours 22 minutes to earn a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory in the first round match.

Czech number eight seed Tomas Berdych also advanced to the second round, defeating Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-2. Monfils was playing his first match since September after suffering knee, wrist and ankle injuries.

Paes ousted

Meanwhile, Leander Paes made a first-round exit from the Dubai tennis championships but Indian hopes were kept alive by Rohan Bopanna who stormed into the doubles quarterfinals of the hard-court event. Paes and his Australian partner Paul Hanley bowed after a 1-6, 3-6 mauling at the hands of second seeded pair of Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Julian Knowle of Austria in the first round on Tuesday.

However, wild card entrant Bopanna and Pakistani Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi edged past Igor Andreev of Russia and Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 7-5, 6-4 in their opening round match. Another Indian in the fray, Mahesh Bhupathi and his Bahamas partner mark Knowles will open their campaign against Jordan Kerr of Australia and Roger Wassen of the Netherlands.