When the three greatest players of all time are all playing in your era and you get to No. 1, that time at the top is worth so much more—and that’s exactly why Murray is at the top of this list.
The Big 3 of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have each won more majors than any other men in tennis history with 20, 19 and 17, respectively, and the bulk of that haul has come in the last 15 years—they’ve won 52 of the last 60 majors. They’ve also had an almost complete stranglehold on the No. 1 ranking, hoarding it for all but 41 weeks since Federer first got there over 16 years ago on February 2, 2004.
The player who took No. 1 away from the Big 3 for 41 weeks was Murray. It's even more impressive when you consider that he’s the only player other than the Big 3 to even be in the Top 2 since July 25, 2005.
Murray isn’t just the only man to storm the Big 3’s castle, he sat on their throne.
“I’ve had a lot of hard losses. It’s not easy losing your first four Slam finals,” he said. “I had a lot of questions asked of my mental state in big matches. But I just kept working, kept trying to find ways to get better. So it’s been hard, but I’ve enjoyed it. I just tried to keep learning all the time.”
Murray’s a three-time major champion, winning the US Open in 2012 and two Wimbledons in 2013 and 2016. He’s also been a runner-up eight times—five times at the Australian Open and once at each of the other majors. He also has two Olympic gold medals in singles, at London in 2012 and Rio in 2016—by contrast, the Big 3 have one gold medal in singles between them (Nadal at Beijing in 2008).
He spent his 41 weeks at No. 1 from November 7, 2016 to August 20, 2017. In any other era, it probably would’ve been for a lot longer.
He'll have to settle for No. 1—forever—on our list.
UNDERRATED TRAITS OF THE GREATS: Roger Federer—Winning ugly | Simona Halep—Boldness | Rafael Nadal—When to come to net | Sofia Kenin—Variety | Pete Sampras—Movement | Serena Williams—Plan B | Novak Djokovic—Forehand versatility | Chris Evert—Athleticism | Daniil Medvedev—Reading the room | Naomi Osaka—Return of serve
RANKINGS: The five most underrated tennis stats | The five most underrated No. 1s | The five most underrated Grand Slam runs
YOUR GAME: Why mental strength is underrated | Five underrated tennis tactics