John McEnroe has never been one to bite his tongue, and Andy Murray has never really been able to laugh off criticism very easily.

It was predictably tense, then, when Andy was asked his thoughts on John’s statements that the Scotsman was nowhere near the level of the world’s top three players.

We’ll start with McEnroe’s comments via the Independent:

McEnroe had suggested that Murray had always been one of the top four, but “it’s been a distant fourth” and “in a way, he’s still a distant fourth.”

The veteran American thought that even Murray had been shocked at becoming world No 1 and added: “Those three guys are better than him. No disrespect. They’re better overall. But you’re talking about three of the five greatest players that ever lived, so it’s a tall order.”

When asked about those comments in the lead up to the Aegon Championships, used by many players to ready themselves for Wimbledon, Murray “bristled” in response:

“It’s not true of the last year because I’m ranked No 1 in the world. I’ve been better than them for the last 12 months. That’s how the ranking systems work. It took me a long time to get there.

“It’s not true of the last year, but in terms of the career as a whole, if I could swap careers with those guys I obviously would because they’ve won a lot more than me.”

He added: “If you look at the titles and everything those guys have won, I can’t compare myself to them. There’s maybe one or two things that I have done that they won’t have, but for the most part I would have been fourth. That’s if you look at a whole career.”

He makes some good points, and he finished with a few choice words:

“Everyone’s criteria for judging a player will be different,” Murray said. “If it’s purely on Grand Slams, then my Olympic medals mean nothing to that person, but they mean a lot to me.”

He added: “Within tennis, a lot of people just say: ‘Oh that guy was a better player because he won more Grand Slams than that one or that woman was better because she won more Grand Slams.’

“If that’s the case, then what is the point in all of us being here today? Why is everyone here covering this event? There are other tournaments outside the Slams as well. Most of the players enjoy competing in them. This tournament over my career is for sure my best tournament and I love playing here.”

I think every tennis player knows that the Slams are where you stake your claim for legendary status, but given that Murray has three of those – and two Olympic golds – he isn’t doing too badly.

World number one, too.

[source:independent]