Andy Murray responds as a startling statistic catches his eye on Twitter

Andy Murray reacts

Andy Murray has been reminded about his battle to the top by a tweet that confirmed he took 3,493 days to reach the top of the game after his initial breakthrough to the top ten of the ATP rankings.

Murray had already won an Olympic gold medal, the US Open and Wimbledon before he crowned his career with a rise to the No 1 ranking in 2016.

And the figures published by a Twitter user caught Murray’s eye, as he reflected on his long journey to the top of the rankings.

While current world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz took just 140 days to convert a top ten breakthrough into world No 1 status, Murray was just shy of 3,500 days on his road from a top ten entry to No 1.

The time lag can be explained by Murray’s challenge of overcoming Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at a time when they were winning tournaments at a relentless rate.

It made his success of finishing 2016 as the year-end No 1 in the ATP rankings all the more impressive.

Those glory days seem some way in the distance for Murray now, after his attempts to get back to the top of the game have come up short in recent months.

His defeat against Giles Simon at the Paris Masters ensured his season ended in disappointment as he suffered from cramping mid-way through the second set, as he admitted he will have to consider his future in the sport unless he finds a winning formula soon.

“I think just the reality is I need to work harder,” stated Murray.

“Obviously, there’s certain things I can and can’t do nowadays, I need to be a bit more careful with some of the training that I do.

“But I can certainly do more than what I have done and push myself harder than what I have done recently. What I’m trying to do is extremely hard. I need to do exceptional things to still compete.

“Having that (cramping) happen after a set and a half on an indoor court where it’s not particularly hot is not really not acceptable.

“There’s no guarantee that I win that match, but when you lose matches, and it feels like it’s down to your physicality, it’s really, really disappointing.”

Murray had hoped to shine in the second half of 2022, but he has struggled to string wins together.

Murray was hopeful of returning more positive results as the tour headed back to North America ahead of the US Open, but that failed to materialise.

“The grasscourt season as a whole there were some good moments, but also some tough ones,” added Murray said.

“The loss at Wimbledon (against John Isner) disappointing and frustrating for me, but then I also had my best wins in a while in Stuttgart.

“(I want) to continue to improve. If I keep seeing progress I’ll continue to keep playing.”

Latest