British number one Andy Murray secured a place in the Miami Open last eight with victory over Kevin Anderson, for his 500th career win.
Seeded third in Miami, Murray’s 6-4 3-6 6-3 win over his South African opponent makes him the first British player to achieve the milestone, going ahead of Tim Henman who won 496 matches.
Murray stated after achieving the milestone, “I’ve been through quite a lot of pain on that court in the last few years. I hope I can use this as motivation to win some more and I hope today’s match wasn’t the last one.”
The two-time grand slam winner and 2012 Olympic gold medal winner added, “There’s different ways of judging the success of someone’s career, but winning 800-900 matches is something that’s happened very rarely and a difficult thing to do – so it gives you something to aim at.”
Murray also becomes the 46th player in the Open era to reach the figure and is among nine other active players in the category.
Those nine are led by Roger Federer who has won 1,012 matches on tour, followed by Rafael Nadal with 721 wins and current world number one Novak Djokovic with 625 wins.
Tomas Berdych, who has also reached the Miami Open last eight, as well as Tommy Robredo are the closest active players above Murray, with Robredo on 505 wins while Berdych has 506 wins.
Next up for Murray in Miami is 21-year old world number 36 Dominic Thiem of Austria in a quarterfinal match on Wednesday.