Andy Murray’s Resilience Shines as He Notches 175th ATP 1000 Hard Court Victory
They were once known as the ‘Big Four’ in men’s tennis and now Andy Murray has confirmed he still deserves to be mentioned alongside Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic after reaching another stunning career milestone.
Murray has struggled to find his best form in recent months and has confirmed he does not expect to continue his career beyond this summer, yet he produced an accomplished display to beat David Goffin in straight sets and progress to the second round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Wednesday.Murray had won his previous seven meetings with the Belgian but entered this clash in poor form and revealed last week it was likely he would end his decorated tennis career this summer.
The three-time Grand Slam champion appeared rejuvenated following his announcement in Dubai and put in one of his best displays of the year to claim a routine 6-3 6-2 victory, which sets up a last-64 clash with Andrey Rublev.It was a win that took Murray’s total of victories in ATP 1000 hard court tournaments to an impressive 175, with only Nadal, Federer and Djokovic ahead of him on that list.
Murray is fourth on the overall list of ATP 1000 wins on all surfaces with 227 victories pushing him ahead of the great Andre Agassi in the all-time list.Nadal currently leads the ATP 1000 victories table with 406 wins, but his withdrawal from Indian Wells and the suggestion that he will end his career in the next few months suggests he will not add too many more wins to that total.So world No 1 Novak Djokovic will aim to claim top spot in the ATP 1000 match wins table over the next couple of weeks, as he needs seven victories at Indian Wells and then at the Miami Open to draw level with Nadal.
Federer has 381 wins in ATP 1000 tournaments and is also third on the list of wins in these events with 28 titles during his incredible career.Djokovic has the most wins in the highest-level events outside of the four Grand Slams as he has 40 titles, with Nadal in second place with 36 and Murray has 14, just behind Agassi (17).Another record Djokovic could break this month is the number of appearances in the semi-finals ATP 1000 events, as he is currently tied with Nadal on 76 in that list.
While Murray cannot match the numbers of the three greats in his generation, there is no doubt that the Scot deserves to be recognised as a tennis legend and if he had played in any other era, he may well have claimed more Grand Slam and ATP 1000 titles.Earlier this year, Murray claimed his 500th career win on a hard court with a victory over Denis Shapovalov in Dubai and he confirmed hard courts have given him some of the best moments in his career.“It’s not bad,” said a typcially under-stated Murray after that landmark moment.“Obviously hard courts has been a great surface for me over the years and 500 is a lot of matches. I’m very proud of that…
There’s not many players who have done that. It’s great to get to 500 before I’m done.”It would be easy to suggest Murray was unfortunate to land in an era of the greatest male players of all-time, yet this great champion still won three Grand Slam titles, two Olympic gold medals in singles and led Great Britain to Davis Cup glory in a career that has seen him collect $64,416,100 in n court prize money..
