Andy Murray is now eager to surpass the achievements of Tim Henman after matching his fellow Briton’s career-wins record on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old equalled Henman’s 496 career wins, which represents an Open era record for a British man, with a 6-3 6-3 victory over France’s Adrian Mannarino at Indian Wells in California.
On matching Henman’s record, Murray joked on Sky Sports: “That’s one of the few records Tim still had over me.
“I wasn’t actually aware of the record so that’s nice. Hopefully I can get through the next round and get past him.”
The victory in California saw Murray book a quarter-final match-up with Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, who edged past Japan’s Kei Nishikori.
Referring to his win over 26-year-old Mannarino, the Scot said: “It was a very tough match, he’s playing very well this year and he’s got a very tricky game.
“He’s a lefty but he has a very flat backhand and a short take-back on his forehand so it’s hard to read.
“He moves well and he has good hands around the net – in both sets though he played one or two loose games which helped me and I stayed solid throughout.
“I was frustrated to get broken in the first set, I thought I started well but he came out firing.
“I tried to make a lot of balls and he didn’t play a great game in the next game and that stopped his momentum.
“I started to feel more comfortable after that and went for my shots more.”