Andy Murray v Ugo Humbert LIVE: Dubai tennis score and latest updates

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.

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.

Murray’s fifth-round win was his 500th on a hard court, becoming only the fifth player in men’s tennis history to reach that figure.

The other four are Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal.

World No 2 Carlos Alcaraz faces an injury concern after injurying his ankle and sustaining an injury that forced him to retire from his Rio Open first-round match against Thiago Monteiro.

Alcaraz needed medical attention after twisting his right ankle on the second point of the contest but the 20-year-old returned to the court a little later with heavy strapping.

He played through the pain and managed to break Brazilian Monteiro’s serve but retired after being broken in the next game as the match ended with the score at 1-1.

“Tomorrow I’ll have a test for my ankle and let’s see if it’s something serious or not,” Alcaraz told reporters. “I felt bad. That was the first impression I had. I was feeling pain once I fell down, so I thought it was going to be difficult to continue if I was still having those feelings.”

Jack Draper avenged his Australian Open defeat to Tommy Paul to book a place in the last 16 of the Mexican Open.

The British No 3 raced through the first set against the seventh seed, winning 6-0 in just over half an hour. But the American, who beat Draper in the second round in Melbourne after losing their two previous meetings, proved stiffer proposition in the second set.

Games remained on serve until Draper cashed in on his second break point to win 6-4.

Dan Evans could not capitalise on a fast start as he went down 6-2 5-7 6-7 to world No 17 Ben Shelton. The British No 2 won the first set 6-2, but dropped the second as the American converted his first break point of the match to claim the set.

Andy Murray has admitted that he may be playing his “last few months” of professional tennis as the 36-year-old continues to hint at a possible retirement.

Andy Murray will look to make it back-to-back wins for the first time in 2024 when he takes on Ugo Humbert in the last-16 of the Dubai Open on Wednesday.

Murray has struggled for form so far in 2024 but battled past former top-10 player Denis Shapovalov in the first round at the start of the week.

After the match, the three-time Grand Slam champion conceded he may be playing his “last few months” of professional tennis, with his retirement from the sport looming large.

The Scot will have his work cut out for him in the last 16 as he takes on world no. 18 Humbert, although he has won his two previous encounters against the Frenchman, who beat fellow countryman Gael Monfils to reach this stage.