British icon Andy Murray returns to Dubai for DDF Championships

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships will welcome three former champions for the ATP 500 tournament later this month, with reigning champion Daniil Medvedev – a recent Australian Open finalist - and 2022 winner Andrey Rublev set to be joined in the emirate by Andy Murray, a three-time Grand Slam champion and a two-time Olympic gold medallist.

Medvedev will have his eye on more success in Dubai, with Italian sensation Jannik Sinner stunning the Russian with an epic five-set comeback win to clinch his first Grand Slam in Melbourne last month.

Medvedev, 27, will be looking to build on a remarkable 2023 season, where he won five titles, reached two Grand Slam finals, and ended the year as World No3.

Rublev, meanwhile, reached the 50-wins mark for the third straight season in 2023, while breaking new ground by claiming his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo. The 26-year-old also lifted the Bastad trophy with a straight sets victory over Casper Ruud, the third time in four years that he has claimed multiple tour-level crowns.

It is two years since Murray’s last appearance in Dubai and seven since he became the first Briton to win Dubai’s annual tennis showpiece. He will join three of the world’s top 10 ATP players when the tournament’s 32nd edition takes place from February 26 to March 2.

Murray, the two-time Wimbledon winner, is set to make his eighth appearance at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, with World No8 Hubert Hurkacz, the 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist, also part of the experienced line-up.

“We are thrilled to have three former champions in Andy, Andrey, and Daniil participating, further underlining the regard in which this tournament is held,” said Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free.

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