Jamie Murray walked off Court 2 on Thursday happy to be in the quarter-finals of the Rolex Paris Masters with partner Matthew Ebden. What he did not know is that their triumph against third seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer marked his 500th tour-level win.
“It’s cool. I wasn’t aware of that at all, actually, that I was close to getting there. But it’s a cool thing, a nice milestone to have in your career,” Murray told ATPTour.com. “It doesn’t feel like I’ve been winning that much this year, so a nice way to finish the year and give a nice motivation for next season and try to get to 600 at some point.”
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Murray became just the second active doubles player to reach the 500-wins mark, joining Brazilian Marcelo Melo (590-375). It is another big achievement for the Scot, who has climbed to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings and lifted 27 tour-level trophies.
“The thing with tennis is it’s so constant and you’re always thinking about the next event or the next match or the next practice. You’re kind of always looking to the future, you’re not always in the present or taking time to take stock of what you’ve done in your career,” Murray said. “I’ve obviously had a really good career to this point. Always want to do better and strive for more, but if you’d told me as a kid that I’d win 500 matches on the ATP Tour, I probably would have been like, ‘Yes please, I’ll take that!’ It’s motivating to go for more and try to keep working hard, try to get more success, be in the winners’ circle as often as you can.
“It’s not easy, the level is really high these days all through the rankings. That’s a cool thing to achieve, but let’s go for more.”
One of the most memorable wins of Murray’s 500 came in the 2008 Delray Beach final. Max Mirnyi and Murray defeated legendary duo Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan. It was the Scot’s first victory against the twin brothers.
“They were the greatest ever and it’s who I think all the guys look up to and get on Tour with a chance to play against them and compete against them,” Murray said. “I was fortunate to play against them so many times in the end but I think when I beat them with Max Mirnyi in Delray, at that point you’re thinking, ‘Okay, I can compete here on the Tour and maybe do some good things.’ That one stands out for me.”
Other matches Murray recalled include when he claimed his first ATP Tour title in 2007 in San Jose with Eric Butorac and emerging victorious in 2018 in Cincinnati with Bruno Soares.
Murray will next year be playing with Kiwi Michael Venus. But for now, he is focussed on finishing the year on a high in Paris with an ATP Masters 1000 title still to play for. Then it will be back to work as the lefty continues his push back to the top.
“It’s easy for me right now because this year was difficult, last year was kind of difficult as well. Now my ranking has dropped a bit, but I still feel like I’m capable of playing at the top of the game and being in the Top 10,” Murray said. “I want to try to get back there, that’s my motivation. And obviously it helps to be winning matches in these events.”