In the early morning of February 22, Beijing time, the first round of the ATP500 Dubai race began to compete, and the former world number one Murray competed in the event, which was the first time he returned to Dubai to participate in the competition since winning the championship in the station in 2017. Murray's opponent in the first round was qualifier O'Connell, and the two sides fought fiercely in three sets in this match, and Murray won 2-1 to advance.
In the first set, Murray defused the break point in the 5th set to save the serve, and in the 6th set O'Connell saved three break points to save the service. Murray lost his serve in the 9th inning and then broke his opponent's serve in the 10th inning to win the set. After that, the two saved their own serves, and the first set went into the seventh. Murray gave up three consecutive runs after 4-4 and O'Connell won 7-4 in the first set to grab seven.
In the second set, Murray opened with four consecutive points to break his opponent's serve, and then he defused the break point to save serve and take a 2-0 lead. In the 9th inning, O'Connell had no way back, and at the crucial moment, Murray broke again to win the second set 6-3.
In the decider O'Connell saved break points in the 4th set, and Murray defied 4 break points in the 9th set. In the 12th set, O'Connell had a no way out of the game, and at the crucial moment, Murray successfully completed the break and won the decider 7-5.
In the end, in a match that took 2 hours and 51 minutes, Murray, who played with a wild card, defeated the world number 158 O'Connell 6-7 (4) / 6-3 / 7-5 to reach the second round. In the next round, Murray will face the winner between No. 4 seed Zinner and world No. 43 Phurkina, and if he can win, Murray will reach the 700th milestone of his career.