After finally getting his first win of 2024, Andy Murray hopes to add to it at the 2024 Dubai Championships, but it's going to be really tough as he's playing Denis Shapovalov.
The Canadian might have spent much of 2024 away from the courts, but he returned this year, and he's looked fairly decent. He played a few matches, and now it's about playing regularly and winning more matches so that the confidence returns.
In that sense, he got a great draw at the ATP 500 tournament in Dubai, as he'll play Andy Murray, who only has one win to his name this year. It came last week in Doha, and he played a pretty decent match to get there.
Head-to-head:
Despite both competing on the ATP Tour for a while, they only played two matches so far, and the H2H score is 1-1. Both were played a while ago, and Murray won the one on clay, which was played in 2022. On the other hand, Shapovalov won their match in 2021 at Wimbledon.
I somehow favour Shapovalov in this spot here because I think he's played well enough to beat Murray, but generally, the Brit's style does not suit Shapovalov that well. Much will depend on how the Canadian serves.
| Andy Murray | Denis Shapovalov | |
| 1 | H2H | 1 |
| 50 | Rank | 121 |
| 36 | Age | 24 |
| 1-5 | 2024 W/L | 1-5 |
| 733-254 | Career W/L | 182-154 |
Prediction:
If he can generate enough pressure with his serve, then he should be in a solid spot to win the match. Murray played very aggressively in Doha, and if he does the same in Dubai, he could get away with it if Shapovalov has a bad serving day.
I don't think he will because he's been pretty solid here in the past.
Prediction: Denis Shapovalov to win in three sets.
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