Why is Andy Murray the most underrated tennis player of all-time?

While nobody is going to confuse Andy Murray with the Big Three of men’s tennis, there is a strong argument to be made that he is the most underrated player in men’s tennis history. Murray’s relatively meager major championship total (3) sticks out as a potential deal-breaker when discussing his place in history. However, the gap between the three GOATs and Murray is arguably the same as the gap between Murray and everyone else from the 21st century. No player in the history of tennis had a more difficult strength of schedule than Murray. His career coincided with the primes of the three greatest players who ever lived. Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal won a combined 66 major championships, and nearly all of them came while Murray was active. This puts some perspective on Murray’s three major championships, 11 major finals, 21 major semifinals, and 30 major quarterfinals. In fact, over the course of Murray’s career, no player outside of the Big Three came close to those numbers. The next closest for each is six major finals, nine major semifinals, and 17 major quarterfinals. 

There was a stretch from 2011-2015 when Murray made it to the quarterfinals in 18 straight major appearances. In the history of tennis, only Federer, Djokovic, Jimmy Connors, and Bill Tilden had longer streaks. At face value, Murray’s totals don’t jump off the screen, but the fact that he was able to carve out that much success while the three greatest tennis players of all-time were in their primes speaks volumes to his accomplishments. In addition to his success in major tournaments, Murray also won 14 Tier 1 titles, reached 21 Tier 1 finals and 33 Tier 1 semifinals, and is the only man in history to win two Olympic individual tennis gold medals. His 14 ATP Masters Series titles only trail the Big Three and Andre Agassi for most all-time, and his 20 ATP Tour titles (majors, ATP-1000, ATP Finals, and Olympics) are the 6th most all-time behind only the Big Three, Pete Sampras, and Agassi. He’s also the only player outside of the Big Three to debut since 1990 who has won at least 200 matches at the majors.

Perhaps most remarkably, Murray achieved a year-end #1 ranking while the holy trinity were active. While the kings of the 80s like Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, and Mats Wilander won more majors, they would’ve been hard pressed to accomplish what Murray did in the era of the GOATS.

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Hi (hopefully) awesome reader! I welcome your comments. However, please be aware that I make all of my arguments using facts, statistics, and logic. Unfortunately, the average comment on a top-100 list goes something like this:

"UR StooPid. (Insert player) is trash. I've watched (pick a sport) for (pick a number of years) and (pick a player) is better than everyone. UR DUMB. HAHA6969."

–Some Jabroni

As cognitively stimulating as this species of comment is, it ends up being a missed opportunity to share a nuanced perspective. I reply to all comments that show even the most basic levels of thought and humility. The people who make the comments like the example above are under the assumption that the three seconds of thought that popped into their brains after reading the list is more than the 1000s of hours that I put into creating and maintaining the lists. I would be happy to defend any placement, or make an adjustment if one is warranted. If you are a jabroni, like the one above, then your comment will die in the lonely void of the unpublished comments section.

For everyone else, I look forward to your comments!

P.S. The theme of this site and the top-100 lists is that athletes from previous generations have historically been grossly overrated by sports publications in a way that is statistically improbable. Click on the "About" dropdown menu to see just how badly the average top-100 list disproportionately favors athletes from older generations when leagues were smaller, race quotas existed, and globalization wasn't a thing. Also, please consider reading "The History" section of the sport you are commenting on.

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