Murray claims Brisbane title ahead of Australian Open

TENNIS: Andy Murray warmed up for this month’s Australian Open with a straight-sets win against Grigor Dimitrov to retain his…

TENNIS:Andy Murray warmed up for this month's Australian Open with a straight-sets win against Grigor Dimitrov to retain his Brisbane International tennis title yesterday.

The 25-year-old Scot, ranked third on the ATP World Tour, won 7-6 (7-0) 6-4 against his 48th-ranked opponent as he collected a 25th career title.

He came back in each set to beat Bulgaria’s Dimitrov, 21, who was playing in his first final.

“He plays a lot of different shots, which is tough to play against because you’re kept off balance a lot of the time,” Murray said.

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Murray was broken in his opening service game and had to save a set point at 5-6 before sweeping a tie-break. Dimitrov had a break in the seventh game of the second set before Murray won three straight games to end the Bulgarian’s resistance.