(Reuters) – Andy Murray was on the verge of retirement in 2019 due to a niggling hip issue and faced an uncertain future after a second surgery the following year, but the former world number one is now targeting 800 career wins after a run to the Doha final.
The 35-year-old fell to a 6-4 6-4 defeat by Daniil Medvedev in the Qatar Open final on Saturday in only his fourth ATP title clash since returning to the tour.
But the Scot said that he still had a lot to achieve despite playing with a partly metal hip.
“It’s important to have goals and targets and some of those goals are different to what they were 5-10 years ago. But I have ambitions of winning tournaments and having deep runs in majors, winning a certain number of matches in my career,” Murray said.
“I’d like to try to get to 800 match wins, which I think I’m like 75 (77) away from. There are little things that you can do to keep yourself motivated. Part of it is seeing how far I can go with the physical limitation I have.”
Murray played four straight three-set matches in Doha and showed his battling qualities in the semi-final by saving five match points against Jiri Lehecka on Friday to reach his 71st ATP final.
“I didn’t know how much I was going to be able to play or if I’d be able to compete at this level again,” three-times Grand Slam champion Murray added.
“So now that I know that I’m able to, I want to see how far that can go, because it’s a challenge and something I’m proud of the results that I’m having with a large physical limitation.”
Murray will next travel to the Dubai championships which begin on Monday.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill)
