Andy Murray sets new career target after finishing as Qatar Open runner-up
Andy Murray is set for a significant climb up the ATP rankings after finishing as a runner-up to Daniil Medvedev at the Qatar Open and revealed he is now targeting 800 career wins.
Murray produced several impressive performances at the tournament including a remarkable semi-final victory in which he saved five match points.
The 35-year-old was previously told he would not be able to play professional tennis again due to a hip injury before surgery in 2019 saved his career.
Murray has reached four ATP Four finals since – winning one – and his performance in Qatar will now see him climb 18 places to world No.52.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Murray, speaking after his 4-6 4-6 defeat to Russia’s Medvedev – one of the best players in the world at the moment – said: ‘It was an incredible week.
‘Obviously it didn’t finish as I wanted, but I had some amazing matches here and create some great memories. It was fantastic to be in a final again.
‘Daniil is one of my favourite players to watch and one of the best players on the tour.
‘It was great for me to get that opportunity to play against someone of his level in a final again. Definitely some things to work on.
‘I am proud of my week and the work me and my team have put in to get me back to this stage.’
Murray, who plays with a metal hip, is now setting his sights on 800 match wins as he added: ‘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, ten years ago.
‘But I, yeah, 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, which, I don’t know, I think I’m like 75 (77) away from that.
‘There [are] little things that you can do to keep yourself motivated. Part of it is seeing how far I can go with, well, the physical limitation that I have.
‘You know, like 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, yeah, it’s a challenge and something that, you know, I’m proud of the results that I’m having, yeah, with a large physical limitation.’
