Aussie tennis journeyman Chris O'Connell came close to achieving one of the finest victories of his career, but could not quite overcome three-time grand slam champion Andy Murray in the Dubai Championships.
The 27-year-old from Sydney's Northern Beaches had four break points to go 5-4 up, and serve for the match, in the final set, but the veteran Scot managed, in his own words, 'to tough it out in the end'.
Murray finally took the first-round match 6-7 (4) 6-3 7-5 in just under three hours.
O'Connell, ranked 158th in the world, came into the tournament with the confidence gained from having beaten top-ten player Diego Schwartzman in reaching the third round of the Australian Open last month
Murray was coming in off the back of a 6-0 6-1 defeat to Roberto Bautista Agut in Qatar.
The Aussie took the 68-minute first set against his illustrious opponent with a strong recovery in the tie-break.
O'Connell had broken in the ninth game of the set only for Murray to immediately break back. The Scot then gained an early mini-break in the breaker but O'Connell fought back to win four of the last five points.
However, the former world No.1 rallied to sweep through the second stanza in 39 minutes, breaking at the start and end of the set.
The pair traded holds in the final set, the Australian No.9 staving off a break point in the fourth, before a titanic ninth game that featured six deuces.
O'Connell forced four break points, but could not drive the advantage home. Nevertheless, he recovered to hold easily for 5-5.
Murray, a winner of this tournament in 2017, then stepped up a gear winning eight of the last nine points to secure the 699th victory of his career.
Elsewhere in the tournament qualifiers Jiri Vesely and Taro Daniel pulled off surprise results beating Marin Cilic and David Goffin respectively.
