Andy Murray beats Kevin Anderson to reach 500 career wins

Andy Murray became the first Briton to reach the landmark of 500 career wins after defeating Kevin Anderson to earn his place in the Miami Open last eight.

The third seed required all three sets to despatch South Africa's Anderson, seeded 15, winning 6-4 3-6 6-3.

Murray becomes the 46th man to reach 500 wins since the open era began. Of those, only nine are still playing.

The Scot, 27, has reached the landmark in just under 10 years, having made his professional debut in April 2005.

Murray told BBC Sport it was "fitting" to record his 500th career win in Miami, where he spends a lot of time training.

"I've been through quite a lot of pain on that court in the last few years," he said.

"I hope I can use this as motivation to win some more and I hope today's match wasn't the last one.

"There's different ways of judging the success of someone's career, but winning 800-900 matches is something that's happened very rarely and a difficult thing to do - so it gives you something to aim at."

Murray set a new record for open-era wins by a British man earlier in March, beating Feliciano Lopez at Indian Wells to surpass Tim Henman's 496-victory mark.

In Miami he was aggressive from the outset, breaking Anderson's serve in the first game of the match and attacking even the most challenging of shots to sustain his advantage throughout the first set.

Anderson, 28, was slow to start but recovered well to twice break serve and open a 4-0 lead on the way to the second set, as Murray appeared to be fading.

But the Scot broke serve again early in the deciding set and with the landmark in sight, rediscovered his best to claim victory and a place in the quarter-finals of a tournament he has won twice before, in 2009 and 2013.

He will now face Austria's world number 36 Dominic Thiem, 21, on Wednesday.

Roger Federer, 33, is the current player with most matches won with 1,012, while five-time US Open champion Jimmy Connors, who retired in 1996, has the most career wins of all-time with 1,253.

Rafael Nadal has won 721 matches while Novak Djokovic has 625.

Djokovic, 27, won his 500th match at the French Open in 2013, nine years after playing his first professional game on the tour circuit in July 2004.

Nadal, 28, reached the landmark in 2011, beating Croatian Ivan Dodig in the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open, nine years on from making his debut aged 15.

Federer also made it 500 wins nine years after turning pro, beating David Ferrer in Monte Carlo in April 2007.