33 years ago today the most successful British tennis player of all time was born in Glasgow. Andy Murray has managed to establish an impressive career during an era that has been dominated by the Big Three of the sport. A former world No.1 and grand slam champion, Murray has already cemented his place in the history books.
To mark the Brit’s birthday, here are 33 fascinating facts about the Brit.
- Prior to committing fully to tennis, Murray also showed promise as a football player and was asked to train at the Rangers FC School of excellence when he was just 15 but declined the invitation.
- Besides both his mother and brother being heavily involved in tennis, Murray’s grandfather was a former professional football player. Roy Erskine made 46 appearances in the Scottish Football League throughout the 1950s and played as a defender.
- In 2004 he became the first British player to win a junior title at the US Open. At the tournament he scored wins over Juan Martin Del Potro, Sam Querrey, Viktor Troicki, Mischa Zverev and Sergiy Stakhovsky.
- Murray claimed his first ATP Tour win at The Queen’s Club when he defeated Spain’s Santiago Ventura 6-1, 6-2, back in 2005.
“This was a very important match for me – one of the biggest of my career,” an 18-year-old Murray told BBC Sport after.
“Playing in an ATP tournament at my age is obviously going to be a big deal. Once I got on top I didn’t let the guy off the hook and finished the match off pretty well.” - In 2013 Murray became the first British man to win the Wimbledon title since Fred Perry back in 1936. A peak TV audience of 17.3 million viewers switched on to watch his win on the BBC in Great Britain with the average being 12.1 million. It was the seventh most watched program that year on British TV.
- Murray’s achievements have been marked by the Royal Mail on numerous occasions. Twice there has been a special series of stamps released in his honour. The first was following his triumph at the 2012 Olympics and the second was shortly after he won Wimbledon for the first time. There is also a post box in his hometown of Dunblane painted gold to mark his maiden Olympic title.
- He is the only tennis player in history to have won two Olympic gold medals in singles. In 2012 he defeated Roger Federer in the final and Juan Martin del Potro in the 2016 title match. Murray has also won a bronze money in the mixed doubles with Laura Robson.
- His career prize money earnings currently stands at $61,544,007. This is the fourth highest tally in the history of men’s tennis after Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Murray has earned than five times more than any other British player in the history of the ATP Tour. Tim Henman, who is second on the British all-time list, made just over $11.6 million during his career.
- Murray has been named BBC Sports Personality Of The Year more times than any other athlete in its history. He received the honour in 2013, 2015 and 2016. He also earned a top three position in 2012.
- In 2019 he received a knighthood to become Sir Andy Murray. Making it the first time somebody from the world of tennis has received the accolade since Sir Norman Brookes back in 1939. Brooks received his knighthood long after he retired from the sport.
- No other player has won the Queen’s title more times than Murray. Currently known as the Fever-Tree Championships, he has triumphed five times in total. His singles record at the tournament currently stands at 30 wins to seven losses.
- He has scored more than 100 wins over top 10 opposition so far in his career. At present, he has a winning rate of 55% against the top 10 (101 out of 184 matches played). 12 of those wins have been against somebody who was ranked world No.1 at the time
- Outside of the Big Three, Murray is the only player to have held the No.1 ranking within the past 15 years. He was at the top of the rankings for 41 consecutive weeks, which is more than Mats Wilander, Andy Roddick and Boris Becker.
- In June 2017 he became only the 15th player in ATP Tour history to have won a 650th match. He achieved the milestone at the French Open when he defeated Karen Khachanov in the fourth round.
- Murray has played in 21 Davis Cup ties where he has won 40 out of 48 matches. His singles debut in the competition was against Stan Wawrinka back in 2005.
- During 2015 Murray completed a perfect 8-0 record in the Davis Cup to become only the third person in history to do so within the same year after Wilander and John McEnroe. In the final against Belgium, he won all three of his live rubbers. Becoming the person to do so since Pete Sampras back in 1995.
- He has made 48 grand slam main draw appearances since 2005 and has won 189 out of 234 matches played.
- He is fifth on the all-time list for most Masters 1000 titles won (14) and fourth for most matches won (213).
- Murray is the first and only British player to have won the ATP Finals in either singles or doubles. In 2016 he was unbeaten in the group stages before going on to defeat Novak Djokovic in the final.
- He is the founder of 77 Sports Management which is a marketing company that specialises in the representation of talent. The agency recently signed tennis player Paul Jubb, who will now be mentored by Murray.
- Murray is the only player to have scored seven or more wins over every member of the Big Three. He has defeated both Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer 11 times. He also scored seven victories over Nadal. Despite the wins, he still has a losing record against all three of them.
Head-to-head records
11-15 against Djokovic
11-14 against Federer
7-17 against Nadal - At the 2016 French Open Murray became only the 10th man in the Open Era to have reached the final of all four grand slam tournaments during his career. Overall, he has reached 11 finals and won three of them (US Open once and Wimbledon twice).
- In 2019 he was the lowest ranked player to win a title on the ATP Tour following his triumph at the European Open over Wawrinka. At the time of his triumph, he was ranked 243rd.
MURR-ACULOUS 🙌
The emotional moment @andy_murray won the #EuropeanOpen2019 title! pic.twitter.com/Jwj39n5hvA
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 20, 2019
- In 2013 Murray purchased the Cromlix Hotel in Dunblane, Scotland. A luxury 15-bedroom facility that is located in 34 acres of secluded woodlands and garden grounds.
- Murray’s most successful year as a tennis player was in 2016. During that season he won 78 out of 87 matches played and made $13,327,822 in prize money. In total he won nine tournaments.
- In an emotional press conference during the 2019 Australian Open, he hinted that he may be forced to retire from the sport due to injury. After his first round loss in the tournament, a video tribute was played to mark his career. Murray didn’t retire and returned to the court six months later.
- He has undergone two hip operations in 2018 and 2019. The second procedure was hip resurfacing surgery, which is a form of hip replacement where you have an artificial metal cup put into the pelvis.
- His net worth is said to be in the region of $165 million, according to a Forbes estimate made in 2019.
- The All England Tennis Club has already outlined plans for a statue of Murray at Wimbledon. However, it will not be created until he has retired from the sport.
- Murray is one of two players outside the Big Three to have won three grand slam titles since 2001. The other is Wawrinka.
- He has also enjoyed success on the doubles tour by winning three ATP titles. Two of those were with his brother Jamie and his most recent was alongside Feliciano Lopez at the 2019 Queen’s championships.
- In matches played on either the ATP Tour or in grand slams, Murray has won 93% of the them when he has taken the first set. His win-loss record currently stands at 564 wins to 40 losses.
- Coincidentally Murray has an almost identical winning rate against both left and right handed players. Against lefties his ATP Career Fedex Index 0.773 (85-25) and against right handers it is 0.774 (585-171).
