Andy Murray became the first British player to claim 500 career victories on Tuesday as he defeated Kevin Anderson to book his place in the quarter-finals of the Miami Open.
After cruising though his opening couple of matches, the British number one needed three sets to beat the big-serving South African, eventually winning 6-4 3-6 6-3.
He will now face Austria’s Dominic Thiem and is the clear favourite to progress to the semi-finals, currently priced at 1.05, while his 21-year-old rival is 9.00.
Tuesday’s triumph saw Murray become the 46th man to reach 500 career wins during the open era and the venue for the success is perhaps somewhat fitting, with the Scot spending much of the year training in Miami.
The 27-year-old has now set his sights on more success in Florida.
“I’ve been through quite a lot of pain on that court in the last few years,” he told BBC Sport.
“I hope I can use this as motivation to win some more and I hope today’s match wasn’t the last one.
“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.”
After a disappointing 2014, Murray now seems to be building his momentum nicely for the summer where his main goal will be to win Wimbledon for the second time, a feat for which he is the 4.50 second favourite.
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