World No. 1 Andy Murray and seven-time Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships titlist Roger Federer took part in a beach tennis match in front of the iconic Burj Al Arab at the Jumeirah Al Naseem hotel on Friday, ahead of the 25th edition of the ATP World Tour 500 tournament that begins on 27 February. Tournament Director Salah Tahlak was on hand to umpire.

“I’m looking forward to playing, especially on the anniversary of 25 years here in Dubai,” said Federer, who picked up his 18th Grand Slam championship crown at the Australian Open. “It’s nice to be part of a tournament celebrating something. I’ve had some great years here in Dubai. I wanted to be in good shape and ready for the conditions so I came early this year.

The players like this tournament so much, it’s well organised, and well run with good crowds. With the hotel and everything on site it’s so convenient. Today was a nice way to start the celebration of 25 years. Now, I can’t wait for the tournament to start.”

Murray, who lost to Federer in the 2012 Dubai final, added, “It was good fun today playing on the beach, I’ve never done that and the sun came out for us so that was a good start to the day. I enjoy coming to Dubai. I’ve played here a number of years. I feel refreshed and looking forward to competing again.”

Defending champion Stan Wawrinka, two-time runner-up Tomas Berdych and Gael Monfils will also be competing next week at the Aviation Club in Dubai.

Buy Tickets

Juan Martin del Potro’s comeback continues to gather steam with the Argentine steadying to close out Bosnian Damir Dzumhur to reach the Delray Beach Open quarter-finals on Thursday night. The 2011 champion, in just his second match of the season, put paid to his 24-year-old opponent’s fight-back to land a 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 victory.

“It was a really tough match for me,” del Potro said. “He was really fast from the baseline and I couldn’t find the place to make winners with my forehand.

“I got my chances at the end of the match and I took it. I think I played my best game in the third set.

“He was trying to put the ball all the time to my backhand and coming to net when I sliced. He was smart but in the end I was more offensive from the baseline and came to the net in the important moments and that was the difference.”

Del Potro showed signs of rust in the first set, hitting five double faults, including two in the eighth game when he gave back a break. He lost eight of his first nine second-serve points up to the moment at 4-5 when he was down set point. He toughed out that danger on his second serve and avoided consecutive breaks to level the match at 5-all.

Showing signs of frustration, the seventh seed violently slammed his racquet strings into his head in the following game when he missed a makeable forehand passing shot at deuce. Despite his fifth double fault in the tie-break, del Potro took the first set and soon after broke for 3-1 in the second.

Following three surgeries on his left wrist in 2014 and ’15, del Potro again hit his double-handed backhand conservatively and mixed in slices. His full-throttle forehand was dangerous at times but also often erratic. 

Having handed the break straight back with a wild forehand error, a subsequent double fault on break point at 4-all cost the Argentine a second break of serve and, one game later, the set.

With games on serve in the deciding set, Dzumhur rallied from 0/40 but then double faulted at deuce. The game ended with both men at net, where del Potro reached high for a backhand smash winner to clinch the pivotal break and go ahead 4-2.

Dzumhur was staring down match point on serve at 2-5 but survived when del Potro missed wide off the backhand return. He held to force his opponent to serve it out.

Del Potro brought up match point No. 2 with a crunching forehand crosscourt winner. He closed it out when Dzumhur scrambled back for a lob and missed a tweener attempt.

In a battle of Delray Beach champions, del Potro will next take on defending champion, fourth seed Sam Querrey. The American earlier scored a convincing 6-2 6-3 result over his countryman and doubles partner Jared Donaldson to reach the quarter-finals.

“It’s going to be a completely different match,” del Potro said. “He serves as strong as me and plays really fast from the baseline. He’s the favourite to win because he beat me last time in this tournament and he has the higher ranking than me.”

In doubles, top seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan won an all-American clash to reach the quarter-finals. They downed Jared Donaldson and Sam Querrey 6-4, 7-5 to set a quarter-final match with Yen-Hsun Lu and Leander Paes. Third seeds Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi await the winners. Huey and Mirnyi downed Tommy Haas and Vasek Pospisil 7-6(5), 6-2.

Jonathan Erlich and Scott Lipsky ground out a 2-6, 7-6(5), 11-9 victory in an all-unseeded battle over Brian Baker and Nikola Mektic.

They will face Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram for a place in the final. The second seeds snuck through against Purav Raja and Divij Sharan 7-5, 7-5.

Jamie Murray recorded the 300^th match win of his doubles career by partnering Bruno Soares to a 6-3, 5-7, 11-9 quarter-final win at the Rio Open presented by Claro over Andres Molteni/Diego Schwartzman.

Murray/Soares nearly squandered a 9/5 lead in the Match Tie-break, but recovered to prevail on their fifth match point. The top seeds now go on to face either third seeds Pablo Carreno Busta/Pablo Cuevas, who advanced 6-4, 7-5 over qualifiers Facundo Bagnis/Gastao Elias.

Fourth seeds and defending Rio champions Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah continued their win streak with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Nicholas Monroe/Artem Sitak. The Colombian Power took the title last week at the Argentina Open.

Fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta weathered a stern test on Thursday from Victor Estrella Burgos to reach the quarter-finals of the Rio Open with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win.

Carreno Busta comfortably cruised through the opening set but Estrella Burgos, who received a Lucky Loser spot into the main draw after Gerald Melzer withdrew due to illness, grabbed the lone break in the second set at 5-4 to send the match into a decider. But the Spaniard was not to be denied, breaking Estrella Burgos twice and dropping just five points on serve to wrap up the contest in one hour and 42 minutes. He improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head record over the Dominican Republican player to 2-0.

Next up for Carreno Busta is Alexandr Dolgopolov, who extended his win streak to seven matches with a 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4 victory over Horacio Zeballos. The Ukrainian won his first ATP World Tour title in five years by defeating Kei Nishikori in last week’s Argentina Open final.

The Spaniard will seek revenge on Dolgopolov after losing to him in their lone FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting last week in the Buenos Aires semi-finals.