Andy Murray pinpointed Roger Federer as the player he didn’t mind facing as much as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Colloquially regarded as tennis’ ‘Big Four’, the quartet ushered in an era of dominance that defined the sport.
While Murray, 39, only has three Grand Slam titles to his name, compared to the trio combining for 66, the former tennis star has claimed more combined career wins against the sporting icons than anybody else in history. The Scotsman opened up on his career and specifically Federer’s influence on him during his teenage years on ex-cricket star Kevin Pietersen’s YouTube channel.
When asked who he looked at as top dog when entering the ATP Tour, Murray said on The Switch: “I loved watching [Federer]. I had an injury when I was 16 where I couldn’t play for like six months and I used to sit and take notes on him and watch a lot of the top players. It helped me because when I then went on the tour, I felt like I’d seen so much of them, I actually had a plan at how I’d go about playing against them.”
Despite his 11-14 record against the Swiss legend, Murray admitted he preferred battles against him than he did his fellow adverseries. He added: “He was the guy that was comfortably number one in the world at the time. The first time [I played him] was in 2005.
I played against him in the final of a tournament in Bangkok, it was my first final on the main tour. I actually played a good match [but] I lost, I played against him 25 times in total. I’ve got 11 wins against him and I didn’t mind playing him as much as some of the others.
Murray earned as many wins against Federer as he did when facing Djokovic but lost 25 times to the Serbian across almost 11 years. He defeated Nadal just seven times with the Spaniard besting him on 17 occasions, but the 22-time major champion had the ultimate compliment in store for Murray.
Nadal once said: “In terms of level of tennis, in terms of mentality winning spirit – Andy was the only one at the same level of myself, Roger and Novak.” The two-time Olympic gold medallist has ventured into coaching since retiring in 2024, having assisted Djokovic last year and has now been brought into Jack Draper’s team for the grass-court season.
Their partnership was set to debut at Queen’s last week but the British star withdrew from the tournament due to a knee injury and is targeting a return at Eastbourne prior to Wimbledon.
