Andy Murray celebrated his 700th victory on the ATP Tour! The 34-year-old Scot signed her in the 1st round of the Indian Wells Masters 1000 by beating Japan’s Taro Daniel 1-6 6-2 6-4. Also engaged in Indian Wells, Schaffhausen’s Henri Laaksonen (ATP 87) will however have to wait a little longer before celebrating his 50th victory. The Swiss no2 lost 3-6 6-7 (4/7) against the Argentinian Facundo Bagnis (82).
Andy Murray, now 88th in the world hierarchy, took his revenge on Taro Daniel (ATP 106) who eliminated him at the Australian Open in January.“Reaching this number of 700 wins is a very, very big achievement”commented on the triple winner of Grand Slams (2 Wimbledon and a US Open). “It was not easy to get there”he added, recalling that he had reached the 600 victories mark in 2016 before injuries hampered his progress: “Five and a half years to win the next hundred, it took time”.
“I watch this stuff now”he said of the career stats. “It motivates me and encourages me to try to go higher and win more matches…”.
This 700th victory ranks him, among active players, in the same club as the 3 giants of world tennis, but far from them all the same: Roger Federer (1251), Rafael Nadal (1043) and Novak Djokovic (991) .
afp / bao