ANDY MURRAY TENNIS - ROLEX SHANGHAI MASTERS - QI ZHONG TENNIS CENTER - MINHANG DISTRICT - SHANGHAI - CHINA - ATP 1000 - 2023 © TENNIS PHOTO NETWORK
Andy Murray has produced a historic 500th ATP hard court win, joining Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal as the fifth man to do so.
Murray fought back to beat 2021 Wimbledon semi-finalist Denis Shapovalov, 4-6 7-6(5) 6-3, to continue his record of winning the first round in Dubai.
This is only Murray’s second victory of the season, with his first coming over Alexandre Muller last week in Doha, and the Brit admitted that he may be in his final months as a professional player in the on-court interview.
“I probably don’t have too long left but I’ll do as best as I can these last few months,” said Murray. “I still love competing and still love the game but it gets harder and harder to compete the older you get, to keep your body fit and fresh.”
Murray has had some great success on hard courts over the years, winning 34 of his 46 titles on the surface, including the US Open and ATP Finals.
The 36-year-old was then asked about how it felt to join his former ‘big four’ rivals with this latest victory, “It’s not bad! Hard courts have been a great surface for me over the years. 500 is a lot of matches. I’m very proud of that, obviously the list that you’ve given me, there’s not many players who have done that, so great to get to 500 before I’m done.”
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Andy Murray will now look to win back-to-back matches for the first time since September, when he plays the winner of the French battle between Gael Monfils and Ugo Humbert tomorrow.
