Murray is seeded to reach the semi-finals in Doha

On a chilly day, the fourth seed began slowly and was unable to hold his serve as the Italian won the first set.

The 19-year-old lost the first game in the second but then broke serve twice on his way to levelling the match.

The Scot saved a break point to take a 4-2 lead in the third and pressed on to set up a match with Christophe Rochus.

Murray was pleased with the way he fought back after a difficult start against Volandri, the consistent world number 38.

"Even though I was never at my best I was happy," said Murray, who has been battling a bad cold.

"Anyone will tell you that the first match of the year is not easy, and he is a hard guy to play.

"I had to pick my chances to be aggressive and was happy to come back.

"It's one of my goals to fight when I get these sort of matches, and this is the sort of match I was losing at the start of last year."

606 DEBATE: How far will Murray go in Doha?

Belgian Rochus, ranked 64 in the world, overcame Spain's Alberto Martin to book his place in the second round.

Third seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, Russian fifth seed Mikhail Youzhny and sixth seed Robin Soderling from Sweden all progressed to the next stage.

Russian world number three Nikolay Davydenko, the event's top-ranked player, begins his campaign against Korea's Lee Hyung-Taik on Tuesday.

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.