Andy Murray v Ugo Humbert LIVE: Dubai tennis result and latest reaction

Right - it’s go time for Andy Murray and Ugo Humbert on centre court. Will Murray’s 501st hard court win arrive this afternoon?

And with have a second quarter finalist in Dubai, Alexander Bublik through in straight sets (7-6, 7-6) against Tallon Griekspoor. The Kazakh will play Jiri Lehecka or Karen Khachanov next.

Ugo Humbert feels like the sort of player who could enjoy a breakthrough year on the court. There’s a lot to like about the Frenchman’s game and that title in Marseille earlier this month should give him plenty of confidence over the next couple of months.

Humbert benefitted from some emergency coaching of his girlfriend, Tessah Andrianjafitrimo, in Provence with regular coach Jeremy Chardy unable to attend the event - and Tessah’s top tips seemed to work.

“She’s a player and she’s injured now. But Jeremy was not in Marseille, so I said to her, ‘OK, this week you are my coach’,” Humbert told ATPTour.com of the WTA player’s help. “She gave me a lot of confidence because when I arrived, I was not really confident after a bad week of practice. But during the matches, she was so focused on what I had to do. She’s so positive on the court and I felt she made me really relaxed.”

It has been suggested that Murray could look to bow out from tennis at Wimbledon this summer, but comments made by the veteran this morning hint that he is willing to play beyond the grass court event. Murray indicated on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning that he hoped to feature at Paris 2024 in August.

“Hopefully I can get the chance to compete at another one,” Murray said when asked about the Olympics, having won back-to-back singles golds in London and Rio de Janeiro, plus a mixed doubles silver on home soil in 2012.

Solid stuff from Andrey Rublev, then, to progress to the quarter-finals. He’ll face the winner of the match between Sebastian Korda and Botic van de Zandschulp, who meet a little later on Court One.

But it’s almost Andy Murray time as the Scot looks to build on that encouraging win over Denis Shapovalov. Another leftie for Murray to contend with - Gael Monfils pushed Humbert hard yesterday, and you feel an extra day of rest may just be helpful for the three-time grand slam champion.

Game, set and match!

Well played Andrey Rublev, who defeats Arthur Cazaux 6-4 6-4 in just 74 minutes to advance to the next round.

It means Andy Murray’s match against Ugo Humbert will be on next, and will start at the previously stated time of 12pm GMT.

Can Andy Murray secure back-to-back wins today?

It’s been a long time since he’s backed up a first-round victory at a tournament.

In fact, you have to go back to August 2023, where Murray reached the third round in Toronto after beating Lorenzo Sonego and Max Purcell.

Murray was set to play Jannik Sinner in the third round but withdrew from the tournament before the match.

Since then, Murray’s record has been won 6- lost 11, and consecutive wins have proved elusive.

Does that change today?

Andy Murray’s matches are getting longer the older he gets!

According to Matthew Willis on Twitter/X, Murray’s matches in 2024 have lasted an average of 146 mins, which is up from 2023.

It’s also significantly above the average match time for top-50 players.

Ugo Humbert cracked the top-20 in the world rankings with his title in Marseille earlier this month.

He defeated Grigor Dimitrov in the final to claim his fifth ATP Tour title, where he also claimed an impressive win over Hubert Hurkacz in the semi-finals.

The 25-year-old Frenchman has form on his side, which is not what you can say about Murray.

Murray and Humbert have played twice before - with the Briton winning both meetings in three sets on hard courts.

They last played in 2021, with Murray coming from a set down to defeat the Frenchman in Metz.

Murray also came from a set down to beat Humbert in Antwerp in 2019.

Humbert, a left-hander comes into their third match at a career-high ranking of 18, however.