Top seed Andy Murray came through his first big test at the Dubai Tennis Championships, fighting back from a set down and saving seven match points to beat Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Murray had cruised past Malek Jaziri and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the opening rounds but he had to dig deep in his quarter-final against the German to win 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (20-18) 6-1.

Both wasted openings in the first set but the German made no mistake in the tie-break as he converted the only set point to move ahead.

The second set looked to be going Murray's way after an early break but, when serving to level the match, the Scot faltered and the subsequent tie-break would enter stunning depths.

Momentum dramatically swung both ways in a spectacular shootout, Murray executing a sublime drop shot, while Kohlscreiber found the lines again and again to stay in the fight.

It took Murray 31 minutes and six seconds to move level with Kohlschreiber - converting his eighth set point. Such a lengthy tiebreak has not been seen in top-level tennis since a 2007 Australian Open clash between Jo-Wilfreid Tsonga and Andy Roddick.

After the gruelling end to the second set, the decider was, contrastingly, much simpler for Murray as he raced to victory in 30 minutes, winning five games in a row to complete a hard-earned triumph.