Murray faces Volandri challenge
Murray is seeded to reach the semi-finals in Doha The Italian world number 38 beat Murray in their only previous encounter - a 6-4 6-4 win on his favoured clay surface at the 2006 Rome Masters.The 19-year-old Scot is fourth seed at the ATP hardcourt event in Doha, where Russian world number three Nikolay Davydenko is the top-ranked player.Croatian Ivan Ljubicic is seeded second and Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis third.Davydenko, who enjoyed a consistently successful 2006 season,
begins his campaign against Korea’s Lee Hyung-Taik. How will Murray succeed in this tournament? Ljubicic faces a qualifier, while Baghdatis, last year’s beaten Australian Open finalist, takes on German Philipp Kohlschreiber.World number one Roger Federer won the Qatar title in 2005 and 2006 but has decided to skip this year’s event.Instead, he is training in Dubai ahead of the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open, which begins in Melbourne on 15 January.