Murray aiming for grand slam victory after win in Marseille
Murray aiming for grand slam victory after win in Marseille
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Sunday, 17, Feb 2008 08:37
Andy Murray insists he is hunting grand slam success this year following his victory in the Marseille Open.
The 20-year-old beat Croatia's Mario Ancic 6-3 6-4 to seal the fifth singles title of his career.
Murray is set to return to the world's top ten when the rankings are released tomorrow, having dropped out after his first round exit at the Australian Open.
Britain's number one said winning grand slams is more important to him than being number one.
"Players are judged on how many they win - that's how good their career is," Murray said.
"But if you are winning Grand Slams obviously you are pretty close to number one anyway.
"For me, I've always set goals for each year. First the top 100, then the top 20, then the top 10. Now it is a Grand Slam.
"If I can do that in the next couple of years then I'll be going for number one."
Murray missed Great Britain's 4-1 defeat to Argentina in the Davis Cup last weekend to protect his knee.
The Dunblane teenager believes he can challenge the top players if he steers clear of injuries.
"At my age, someone like Novak Djokovic has played great in the last couple of years," Murray said.
"But I've had some injury problems and if you look at the number of matches played and the number we've won, it's similar," said Murray.
"(World number one) Roger Federer won here at 20 too so I'm on the right track. It's important to win these tournaments - it's what gives you confidence to go and play well in the Grand Slams.
"When Federer in the next four or five years starts to taper down and hopefully not play as well the older he gets, there's a lot of guys (Rafael) Nadal, Djokovic, myself, (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga, (Richard) Gasquet who will be going for number one."
The next tournaments on the ATP Tour are the Rotterdam Open and the SAP Open in San Jose which start tomorrow.