MURRY TAKES OUT ROGER

World number one Roger Federer suffered his first opening-round defeat since 2004 when he lost 6-7 6-3 6-4 to unseeded Briton Andy Murray in the Dubai Championships on Monday.

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

“Any time you get to play against someone like that it’s just an honor to be on the same court,” Murray said courtside after recording his second career victory over holder Federer.

“But each time I’ve played him I’ve stepped up my game. I’d been serving well and I don’t think he had a break point the whole match. I’m not sure how often that has happened to him.”

The result condemned Federer to back-to-back defeats, after he was also beaten by Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals in January.

Murray, who has won two tournaments this year, squandered a set point in the opening set but that did not seem to faze him.

He produced a series of blistering groundstrokes to break Federer in the sixth game of the second and the top seed struggled to recover.

In the third set Federer failed to halt Murray’s charge and dropped his serve again in the fifth game.

Sensing victory, the Scot unleashed a series of ferocious serves to wrap up victory in one hour 54 minutes.

Monday’s win extended Murray’s head-to-head record against Federer to 2-1.