Andy Murray reigns in desert, books Andrey Rublev clash at likely final BNP Paribas Open

Andy Murray made a strong start at what could be his final BNP Paribas Open appearance, knocking out David Goffin, 6-3, 6-2 to book an intriguing second-round clash with No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev.

Rublev will be playing his first match since getting defaulted from the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships for verbally berating a lines judge during his semifinal against Alexander Bublik. The 10-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist was fined $36,400 but was ultimately allowed to retain his ranking points after appealing the decision to the ATP tour.

A former world No. 1, Murray has strongly hinted that he plans to retire in 2024, but showed flashes of the form that helped him reach the final in 2009 to win his 16th and 17th straight sets over the former world No. 7 in one hour and 19 minutes on Stadium 1 court.

The three-time Grand Slam champion has fought valiantly to recover from a hip resurfacing to become a Top 50 fixture, but endured a brutal stretch starting last fall, losing nine of 10 matches from late-September to mid-February, and is still yet to win two matches at a single tournament since the National Bank Open in August.

The string of disappointments has seen Murray frequently, and to his great frustration, asked about retirement.

“I get asked about it after every single match that I play, every single tournament that I play,” he said in Dubai. “I'm not going to talk more about that between now and whenever the time comes for me to stop. But yeah, I don't plan on playing much past this summer.”

Still, that leaves several months of tournaments left in front of him, and the 36-year-old doesn’t plan to leave quietly based on his form thus far in Tennis Paradise.

Where Murray has struggled, Goffin has been similarly snakebitten in the years since peaking inside the Top 10 back in 2017. Since falling out of the Top 100 last spring, the Belgian has played a mix of ATP Challengers and tour-level qualifiers, winning a pair of three-setters in the latter to book the meeting with Murray.

Murray boasts a 7-0 head-to-head against Goffin, winning their most recent match in 2022 when Goffin was forced to retire after the first set.

Facing off on a cloudy Wednesday afternoon, Murray played a clean opening set, striking eight winners to just five unforced errors against a more erratic Goffin, who struck more winners but also twice as many errors with 11 to 12, respectively.

A big serve put the Brit a set to the good, and an opening break to start the second put him in pole position for only his third match win of the season.

Returning up 4-2, Murray blasted a backhand into the open court to nab an insurance break that had him serving for a spot in the second round. He earned three match points and while Goffin saved the first with a gutsy overhead, Murray made no mistake on the second, acing his way to victory.

Looking ahead, Murray and Rublev are deadlocked at 1-1 in their head-to-head, but Murray's lone win over the young Russian came in 2017; Rublev got the better of his esteemed opposition indoors in Rotterdam in 2021.