Although refreshing the page didn't work for me before, I'll try it and get back to you. But leaving the dashboard and coming back after a while seemed to make it work.

I added the links and left them alone for a day. I don't know how, but the links are opening in a new tab today.

This has been an issue for some time now. I am also looking for a solution. No matter how many times I select the option for "Open link in new tab", the dashboard keeps opening link in the same tab. This is not good at all.

I'm also facing the same issue. It seems like we have to wait it out for Google to do something.