200 and counting: Andy Murray hits impressive milestone with New York success

Andy Murray has become the eighth man to register 200 grand slam victories in the Open era.

The 36-year-old reached the milestone following his latest win over France’s Corentin Moutet in the US Open first round.

Here, the PA news agency takes a closer look at Murray’s career record at tennis’s biggest tournaments.

Elite club

Murray has joined an illustrious list by reaching 200 grand slam wins, headed by his three main career rivals in Roger Federer (369), Novak Djokovic (355) and Rafael Nadal (314).

That trio are more than 80 wins clear of anyone else, with Jimmy Connors in fourth (233), ahead of Andre Agassi (224) and Murray’s coach Ivan Lendl (222).

The Scot is just three wins behind Pete Sampras (203) in seventh and will move above the 14-time major champion with a run to the quarter-finals at the US Open.

Tim Henman is his closest challenger among British players, with 98 grand slam victories.

Home comforts

Murray has been most successful on the grass courts of Wimbledon, with 61 wins out of 74 matches yielding two titles.

He has consistently risen to the occasion on home soil, reaching 10 successive SW19 quarter-finals between 2008 and 2017, and has often spoken about how he enjoys the support of the crowd.

However, the 36-year-old also thrives when playing the role of pantomime villain and has a remarkable record of 18 victories from 19 matches against homegrown players in the Australian, French and US Opens.

Overall, he has 49 victories in New York – the scene of his first major triumph in 2012 – to go with 51 in Melbourne (where he is a five-time runner-up) and 39 at Roland Garros.

Near misses

Murray’s career record at grand slams suggests that he should have more than three titles to his name.

He has a winning record at each stage of major tournaments apart from the final, where he has won three and lost eight of his 11 matches.

Murray has had the privilege and misfortune of playing in a golden era of men’s tennis, with all but one of his finals having been played against Federer or Djokovic.

In total, he has won five and lost 20 of his grand slam meetings with the ‘Big Three’, with eight defeats coming against Djokovic, seven versus Nadal and five at the hands of Federer.

This compares with 195 wins and 34 losses against his remaining 137 opponents.

Stan Wawrinka, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Fernando Verdasco and Roberto Bautista Agut are the only other players to have beaten Murray more than once at grand slam level.

The Scot’s best record is against Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who he has faced five times without defeat.

Injury nightmare

Murray would almost certainly have passed 250 grand slam wins had it not been for a career threatening hip injury.

Shortly after turning 30, Murray – ranked number one in the world at the time – lost to Sam Querrey in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon 2017 and proceeded to sit out the next four grand slams while recovering from surgery.

He had won at least 12 grand slam matches every year in the previous decade, but has managed only 12 in total since the start of 2018.

By comparison, Djokovic – who is just a week younger than Murray – has won 118 matches and lifted 11 titles in the same period.

Despite injury curtailing his prime years, the Scot has continued to show his indomitable fighting spirit.

Eight of his 23 major matches since 2018 have gone to five sets, with Murray emerging victorious on five of those occasions.

Two of his deciding-set wins came back-to-back at this year’s Australian Open, when he followed up a four-hour 49-minute victory over Matteo Berrettini with a staggering comeback from two sets down against Thanasi Kokkinakis in a match that finished at 4am local time.

Sourse: breakingnews.ie

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