Roberto Bautista, second favourite, overwhelmed the British Andy Murrayguest of the organization, which he defeated by 6-1 and 6-0, in 68 minutes, to reach the quarterfinals of the Doha tournament. The man from Castellón, champion in 2019 of this tournament, brought out the limitations of his opponent, physically conditioned, and that gave the feeling of not being in the game.
Bautista, who had already beaten the Scotsman in two of the four matches prior to Doha, will play in the quarterfinals against Alejandro Davidovich. The man from Malaga (47th) came from behind the British Dan Evans (28th) in a tough match of almost three hours by 4-6, 7-5 and 6-4.
Murray, champion of this tournament in 2008 and 2009 and finalist in 2017 and 2007, he was only able to get one game against the Spaniard.
In addition to Roberto Bautista, the Canadian Denis Shapovalov, the first favorite, progressed in the tournament, who beat the Slovakian Alex Molcan 6-4 and 6-0 to meet the Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, executioner of the seventh seed, the Kazakh Alexander Bublik, by winning 6-7 (5), 6-1 and 6-4.
The Croatian Marin Cilic, fourth favorite, who beat the Dutch Boric van de Zandschulp 6-3 and 7-5, also made it to the second round and will play against the winner of the clash between the Russian Karen Khachanov, sixth, and the Finnish Emil Ruusuvuori.