Former US Open champion Andy Murray on Tuesday notched up his 200th major win as he stormed past Frenchman Corentin Moutet 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 to progress to the US Open 2023 second round at Flushing Meadows.
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Murray has become the ninth man to win 200 or more singles matches at Grand Slams. He is only behind Roger Federer (369), Novak Djokovic (354), Rafael Nadal (314), Jimmy Connors (233), Andre Agassi (224), Ivan Lendl (222), Roy Emerson (210), and Pete Sampras (203) in terms of major match wins. Murray is now 200-54 at Grand Slams.
In the process of advancing to the second round of the year's final Grand Slam for the 16th time in his career, Murray withstood Moutet's elegant shotmaking during a match that lasted two hours and 58 minutes. He constantly fought the touch of the French with depth. Additionally, the 36-year-old continued to excel, earning a perfect score of 69 percent (48/70).
Murray will aim to take it to 201 when he takes on Grigor Dimitrov in the US Open 2023 second round. Dimitrov defeated Alex Molcan 6-7(9), 6-7(5), 6-1, 7-5, 7-6(11-9) in a match that lasted four hours and 40 minutes.
In the second set against Moutet, the 36-year-old came back from 3-5 down to hold two set points and take the lead. In the eighth game of the third set, he broke the tiebreaker by converting his tenth opportunity of the set. On his fourth match point, Murray again held serve and won the point. The Scot had a win percentage of 77 and 62 in the first and second serves, respectively. He converted five of his 25 break points. Moutet (36) had more unforced errors than Murray (23). The latter recorded a total of three double faults.
Meanwhile, Britain's Cameron Norrie also reached the US Open 2023 second round. He defeated Alexander Shevchenko 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and 32 minutes.