Murray overhauls Shapovalov in Dubai for 500th hard-court win, Rublev advances

Andy Murray held firm for a three-set win against Denis Shapovalov on Monday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. In the process, the Briton earned himself membership of an exclusive club.

Murray prevailed 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 against Canada's Shapovalov to seal his 500th tour-level win on a hard court. The only other players who have achieved that feat in the Open Era are Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal.

“It’s not bad,” said Murray of his achievement in his on-court interview. “Obviously hard court has been a great surface for me over the years and 500 is a lot of matches so I’m very proud of that. There are not many players that have done that, so great to get to 500 before I’m done.”

Most tour-level hard-court wins in the Open Era

Shapovalov edged a tight first set with a late break before Murray raised his game to level in the second-set tie-break at the ATP 500. He then broke the Canadian twice in the deciding set as he wrapped a two-hour, 32-minute win to take a 2-1 lead in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

“Both of us haven’t won too many matches lately,” said Murray. “He missed a large part of last year. He’s obviously played well here in the past and he’s serving unbelievable. You need to try and get the balance right between reacting to his big shots, but not just trying to get balls in the court. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to get it done in the end.”

Murray is now 18-5 in Dubai, where he lifted the trophy in 2017. His second-round opponent in the U.A.E. will be one of two Frenchmen — fifth seed Ugo Humbert or wild card Gael Monfils.

500 hard-court wins 👏

Remarkable achievement @andy_murray 🙌@DDFTennis | #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/WExYKS7IlB

— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 26, 2024

Andrey Rublev recovered from a slow start to reach the second round in Dubai for the fifth consecutive year, defeating Zhang Zhizhen 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4.

The second seed, who is now 5-0 in opening matches in 2024, hit 18 aces and saved both break points he faced to improve to 2-0 in the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head series after one hour and 51 minutes.

"I am so happy because the conditions were super tough," Rublev said. "He played amazing in the first set. He was not missing at all on serve, serving 220 and it was so tough to return and do something on return. I am happy I was able be there and as soon as I had a chance in the second set I was able to take it. Then I had one more chance in the third set and was able to take it."

World No. 5 Rublev won the title in Dubai in 2022 and reached the final in 2023. The 26-year-old will continue the quest for his second trophy of the season against Lorenzo Musetti or French qualifier Arthur Cazaux.

Botic van de Zandschulp, Sebastian Korda and Alexander Bublik also advanced with early Monday wins in Dubai. Van de Zandschulp upset sixth seed Adrian Mannarino 7-6(3), 7-5 for his first win against an opponent in the Top 20 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings since last April. The Dutchman will next play Korda, who raced past Pavel Kotov 6-0, 6-2.

The seventh-seeded Bublik came from a set down to win for the sixth time in nine matches by downing qualifier Tomas Machac 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(5). The Kazakhstani, who won his fourth ATP Tour crown in Montpellier earlier this month, next plays Tallon Griekspoor or wild card Abdullah Shelbayh.

Hubert Hurkacz fired 24 aces and saved all six break points he faced in a tense 7-6(5), 6-7(4) 7-6(6) win over Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff in two hours, 40 minutes. Struff served 17 aces of his own and saved the three break points he faced.

Hurkacz has now played eight consecutive tie-breaks. Last week he fell in three tie-breaks to Tallon Griekspoor in the Rotterdam second round after defeating Jiri Lehecka in a third-set tie-break in the first round.