Murray turns back Federer

DUBAI — Andy Murray produced a sizzling display from the baseline to hand world No. 1 Roger Federer his first opening-round defeat since 2004 with a 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 victory in the Dubai Championships on Monday.

The 12-time grand slam champion was last beaten in the first round of a tournament in the Cincinnati Masters in August 2004.

"I definitely could have played much better tennis but then again you’ve got to give credit to the guy who beat you and came up with shots," said defending champion Federer, who has now lost two of his three meetings with the Briton.

With neither player facing a break point in the first set, Murray was quick off the mark in the tiebreak.

The 20-year-old charged into a 5-2 lead and held a set point at 6-5 but squandered it with a weak return.

Federer made the most of the reprieve and bagged the breaker 8-6 thanks to a forehand error from Murray.

The unseeded Murray capitalized on the only break point in the second set by firing a forehand crosscourt winner to break Federer in the sixth game.

While Murray fought well for every ball on the baseline and served well throughout, unleashing 10 aces, the top seed made numerous forehand errors and looked the weaker player in the third set.

After fighting off two break points in the opening game, he was broken to love at 2-2, and Murray dropped just two points in his final three service games to earn a well deser-ved victory.

"I’ve been really mentally weak for such a long time and not held up in pressure situations, and I showed tonight that was not going to be an issue," said Murray, who has won two tournaments this year.

"I stayed calm the whole way through the match.

"In terms of my serving that was pretty special today. I’ve worked on my serve a lot and to beat Federer in a three-set match and not have a break point against you, I don’t think that’s happened to him for a long time."

Murray also credited his success to his mental strength.

"The most important thing is just to believe you can win the match," the 11th-ranked Murray said. "I think too many times on the tour some guys try to play almost too well, and it’s really important to stay patient and not make rash decisions early in the match.

"I definitely didn’t do that today."

Federer was playing just his second tournament of the year, and his first match since losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the Australian Open in January.

Fourth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer beat Germany’s Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-0 and fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia defeated Kuwait’s Mohammed Al Ghareeb 6-4, 6-0.

Seventh-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet beat Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4.