ABU DHABI // David Goffin gave himself a huge boost ahead of his 2017 campaign with a stunning 7-6, 6-4 win over world No 1 Andy Murray in front of a captivated full house at the International Tennis Centre at the Zayed Sports City.
In five previous matches against Murray, Goffin had failed to even take a set off the Scotsman. He had not even managed to force a tiebreaker, but on Friday he broke that streak.
• More: Eyes remain on Australian Open for Murray
Floating around the court with ease, counter-punching and returning superbly, the Belgian took the first set in a tie-break.
In the second set, Goffin was trailing 2-4 after dropping his serve in the fifth game, but doggedly fought back to level the score at 4-4. Goffin broke Murray a second time to book his place in the final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship against either Rafael Nadal or Milos Raonic.
While this match will not count in the official stats, it was Murray’s first defeat since his Davis Cup loss to Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro in September. Officially, Murray’s career-best 24-match winning streak continues.
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
'Cheb%20Khaled'
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Series information
Pakistan v Dubai
First Test, Dubai International Stadium
Sun Oct 6 to Thu Oct 11
Second Test, Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tue Oct 16 to Sat Oct 20
Play starts at 10am each day
Teams
Pakistan
1 Mohammed Hafeez, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Haris Sohail, 6 Babar Azam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed, 8 Bilal Asif, 9 Yasir Shah, 10, Mohammed Abbas, 11 Wahab Riaz or Mir Hamza
Australia
1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Mitchell Marsh, 5 Travis Head, 6 Marnus Labuschagne, 7 Tim Paine, 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Jon Holland
Panipat
Director Ashutosh Gowariker
Produced Ashutosh Gowariker, Rohit Shelatkar, Reliance Entertainment
Cast Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon, Mohnish Behl, Padmini Kolhapure, Zeenat Aman
Rating 3 /5 stars
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
