Murray Downs Anderson For Milestone Win

Andy Murray scored a signature win at the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday, overcoming an early deficit to beat Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-2 in the third round. The victory was the Brit’s 600th at the ATP World Tour level and stretched his career-best unbeaten streak to 20 matches.

“It’s cool that it happened in Cincinnati, the first [ATP World Tour Masters 1000] tournament I’ve ever played in. I got a wild card here when I was 18,” Murray told ESPN’s Brad Gilbert after the match. “I also won my first Masters 1000 here, so it’s a place that means a lot to me.”

Despite the final outcome, it was Anderson who made the better start. The South African, who upset Murray in four sets at the US Open last year, stepped into the court early and often and earned a break in the fifth game of the match. Undaunted, Murray broke back in the following game thanks to three unplayable forehand passes and was in control the rest of the way. He was especially sharp returning Anderson’s second serves, winning 16 of 24 points, and finished with four breaks of serve (4/9).

“Kevin has had some tough injuries to deal with this year and is starting to sort of gradually get back to the level he was playing at last year. It takes time,” Murray said. “For me, I’m coming off the best few months of my career, so it’s slightly different circumstances.”

Murray joins Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer as the only active players with 600 wins. A decade ago, the Brit served notice of his potential by upending top seed Federer in the second round of this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event.

Murray improved to 6-2 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Anderson and will face Bernard Tomic in the quarter-finals. Tomic has yet to beat Murray in four tour-level meetings.

“He had a good win today against Nishikori,” Murray said. “He’s a talented player. We’ve had some tough matches. He plays with a lot of variety.”