Andy Murray's 800-win goal: How realistic is it ahead of Indian Wells? And how long could it take?
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Updated 09/03/2023 at 10:12 GMT
Ahead of playing Indian Wells this week, Andy Murray has said that one of his goals is to reach 800 match wins. Murray, 35, is currently on 723 wins so needs 77 more to reach the milestone. How likely is the former world No. 1 to reach the goal and when could he do it? Jimmy Connors is the all-time leader with 1274 wins while Stefan Edberg is 10th with 801 victories.
Highlights: Medvedev beats Murray to claim the Qatar Open title
Andy Murray has said that one of his goals is to reach 800 singles wins – but how likely is he to achieve it and where would that place him in the all-time standings?
Murray has six wins to his name in the 2023 season, all in deciding sets, including four in a row at the Qatar Open where he lost in the final to Daniil Medvedev.
At his peak Murray won 78 matches in 2016 and 71 in 2015, but after two hip surgeries he is not hitting those numbers any longer. Last year he won 26 matches and in 2021 he won 15.
With 77 more wins needed to get to 800, will Murray make it?
What has Murray said?
Murray, 35, has achieved almost everything in his career: winning three Grand Slams, getting to world No. 1, two Olympic golds, winning the ATP Finals and every Masters event except two (one of which is Indian Wells, which he plays this week).
But still on his to-do list is to reach 800 match wins.
“I have goals. I think it’s important to have goals and targets and some of those goals are different to maybe what they were five, 10 years ago,” he said at the Qatar Open last month where he took his total to 723.
“But I still have ambitions of winning tournaments and having deep runs in major events, winning a certain number of matches in my career. I’d like to try to get to 800 match wins.
“There are little things that you can do to keep yourself motivated. Part of it is seeing how far I can go with the physical limitation that I have. I didn’t know how much I was going to be able to play or if I’d be able to compete at this level again.
“So now that I know that I’m able to, I want to see how far that can go, because it’s a challenge and something that I’m proud of the results that I’m having with a large physical limitation.”
Had he not undergone hip surgery twice, Murray would likely have already passed 800 wins.
Now, though, it’s a milestone that could take him a few more years to reach.
If Murray, who has previously said he could be one big injury away from retirement, finishes the 2023 season with 26 wins (the same as last year) then he would be 57 away from 800. If he continued at that rate he would need to play for another two years, and a bit more, to reach his goal.
That would mean Murray playing until he is 38.
Murray would not need to continue for that long if he could improve on 26 wins over the next two years - and it seems a distinct possibility that he could do this season. If, for example, he picks up 10 wins on grass, which depending on his schedule does not seem out of the question, then that would already take him to 16 for the year, leaving him needing just 10 more on hard courts and clay to improve on last year’s total.
Murray has so far looked in better shape than he did for most of 2022 and recently spoke about having more “belief” in his body than ever before. He will have the chance to stack up more wins at Indian Wells and the Miami Open this month.
Murray faces Tomas Martin Etcheverry in his opener at Indian Wells on Thursday, March 9 and could meet Jack Draper or Dan Evans in the third round.
Who else has reached 800 wins?
If Murray gets to 800 wins he would almost be in the top 10 in the Open era.
Murray currently sits in 15th place, behind David Ferrer (734) and Pete Sampras (762). In 10th place in the list is Stefan Edberg with 801 wins.
Jimmy Connors is the all-time leader with 1274 wins ahead of Roger Federer (1251), Ivan Lendl and Rafael Nadal (1068), and Novak Djokovic (1046).
Top 10 all-time ATP wins
- Jimmy Connors - 1274
- Roger Federer - 1251
- Ivan Lendl - 1068
- Rafael Nadal - 1068
- Novak Djokovic - 1046
- Guillermo Vilas - 951
- Ilie Nastase - 908
- John McEnroe - 883
- Andre Agassi - 870
- Stefan Edberg - 801
What's Murray's schedule?
Murray is set to play Indian Wells and the Miami Open this month, two tournaments where he has not enjoyed much success in recent years.
Indian Wells is one of two Masters 1000 events, along with Monte Carlo, that Murray has never won, and since making the semis in 2015 his best performances are twice reaching the third round. Murray is a two-time champion in Miami but since reaching the final in 2015 has only played there twice, losing in the third round in 2016 and second round last year.
That would be a busier schedule than in recent years when Murray has cut back on his clay tournaments seemingly to help stay fresh for the grass summer.
He hasn’t played the French Open since 2020 and his last appearance at the Italian Open was in 2017, a year after he won the tournament.
Speaking about his plans at the Qatar Open, Murray said he was eager to play the French Open again after losing in straight sets to Stan Wawrinka in the first round last time out.
“Physically, I was not good the year I played against Wawrinka,” he said. “I’d like to get the opportunity to play it one more time before I stop playing. While I feel physically really good, I would like to play there again.”
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