Murray earns victory in 1000th match, advances at Queen's Club

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andy-murray/mc10/overview'Andy Murray/a earned victory in his 1000th tour-level match on Tuesday when he overcame a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexei-popyrin/p09z/overview'Alexei Popyrin/a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 at the cinch Championships./ppThe Scot is a record five-time champion at the Queenrsquo;s Club and he played with confidence against Popyrin to snap a four-match losing streak on Tour. Backed by a vocal crowd in London, Murray used his backhand slice to keep the ball low and hit through his forehand to dictate in the key moments./pp"I didn't realise, but my mum told me before the match that this was my 1000th match on the Tour," Murray said in his on-court interview. "A lot of matches and a lot of wear and tear in the body and it is not easy but I managed to push through."/ppWith his one-hour, 51-minute win, Murray set a second-round clash with Australian a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jordan-thompson/tc61/overview'Jordan Thompson/a. The former No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings has often produced his best level on grass, also winning a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a twice (2013, 2016)./ppMurray holds a 32-9 record at the ATP 500 grass-court event, having won his first match at the tournament in 2005./pp"During the match it is difficult but great reward at the end for the hard work and effort I put into the match," Murray said. "I have not got too many wins this year, it has been a difficult season but did well to come through in the end. Held quite a few tight service games and managed to serve it out well."/ppstrongActive players to compete in 1,000 ATP Tour-level matches/strong/ptable tbody tr tdPlayer/td tdMatches/td tdW-L/td /tr tr tda href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a/td td1324/td td1105-219/td /tr tr tda href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rafael-nadal/n409/overview'Rafael Nadal/a/td td1300/td td1075-225/td /tr tr tda href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/fernando-verdasco/v306/overview'Fernando Verdasco/a/td td1006/td td559-447/td /tr tr tda href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/richard-gasquet/g628/overview'Richard Gasquet/a/td td1004/td td605-399/td /tr tr tda href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andy-murray/mc10/overview'Andy Murray/a/td td1000/td td739-261/td /tr /tbody/table[ATP APP]pIn other action, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/giovanni-mpetshi-perricard/m0gz/overview'Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard/a earned a statement win when he upset sixth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ben-shelton/s0s1/overview'Ben Shelton/a 6-3, 7-6(3)./ppFrench qualifier Mpetshi Perricard, who won his maiden tour-level title in Lyon last month, fired 16 aces to earn his first grass-court tour-level win. The 20-year-old is up eight spots to No. 59 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. Shelton is now 19-13 on the season, having lost his past three matches./ppMpetshi Perricard will next play a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/billy-harris/hd68/overview'Billy Harris/a after the British wild card defeated a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tomas-martin-etcheverry/ea24/overview'Tomas Martin Etcheverry/a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to earn just his second tour-level win./ppFifth-seeded American a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tommy-paul/pl56/overview'Tommy Paul/a eliminated a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sebastian-baez/b0bi/overview'Sebastian Baez/a 6-4, 6-4, while a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/brandon-nakashima/n0ae/overview'Brandon Nakashima/a advanced after a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniel-evans/e687/overview'Daniel Evans/a retired with the score at 4-6, 6-3./pp[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p