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Turning 30: A closer look at Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic

The two rivals both turning 30 this month, here’s a look at their parallel careers so far

ndy Murray and Novak Djokovic during their doubles match at the Australian Open in 2006. Photograph: Getty Images

Fri May 12 2017 - 11:35

Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic will celebrate their 30th birthdays within a week of each other this month.

Murray reaches the milestone on May 15th followed by Djokovic on May 22nd.

The former childhood rivals have been battling against each other for nearly 20 years and enter their 30s sitting at one and two in the world rankings.

Here, we chart the story of their parallel careers.

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JUNIORS

They played each other for the first time at the age of 11 at a tournament in France, Murray winning easily, and it was the Scot who had a better junior career. He won the prestigious Orange Bowl aged 12 and the US Open junior title in 2004.

While Murray headed to Barcelona to train as a teenager, Djokovic left Serbia at the age of 12 to work with Niki Pilic in Munich. His best performance at a junior slam was reaching the Australian Open semi-finals in 2004.

EARLY DAYS ON TOUR

Both players were quickly successful on the lower-tier Futures and Challenger Tours, with Djokovic winning his first title in June 2003 in Serbia a month after his 16th birthday. Murray lifted his first senior trophy three months later in Glasgow.

FIRST GRAND SLAM APPEARANCE

Murray was given a wild card into his home grand slam at Wimbledon in 2005 and won two rounds before losing to David Nalbandian from two sets up. Djokovic also made his grand slam debut in 2005 at the Australian Open, where he lost in the first round to Marat Safin.

TOP 100

Djokovic was the first to break into the top 100, in July 2005, with Murray making the jump in October of the same year.

FIRST TITLES

Murray was ahead of his rival on this one, winning his first ATP World Tour title in San Jose in February 2006, beating Lleyton Hewitt in the final. Djokovic followed in Amersfoort, Holland in July of the same year, defeating Chile’s Nicolas Massu.

TOP 10

Djokovic just pipped Murray to this milestone, reaching world number 10 on March 19th, 2007, four weeks before the Scot.

GRAND SLAM BREAKTHROUGH

Djokovic reached his first grand slam final at the US Open in 2007, losing to Roger Federer, and won his maiden title next time out at the Australian Open in 2008. He has since added 11 more from 21 finals in total, beating Murray in five of them. It took Murray until September 2012 to win his first slam, beating Djokovic in five sets at the US Open. He reached his first final in New York in 2008 and has subsequently won three of 11 finals, defeating Djokovic and Milos Raonic at Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016 respectively.

WORLD NUMBER ONE

Djokovic was well ahead this time, reaching the top of the world rankings after winning his first Wimbledon title in 2011. He has spent a total of 223 weeks so far at the top of the standings across three different spells. Murray finally ticked the box in November 2016 when he overtook Djokovic and is currently in his 27th week at number one.

DAVIS CUP

A key achievement for both players was guiding their respective countries to the Davis Cup title. Serbia's triumph in 2010 was a major catalyst for Djokovic's ascension to the top of the tennis world. Murray, meanwhile, achieved one of the most remarkable individual feats in Davis Cup history by winning, either on his own or alongside his brother Jamie, 11 of Britain's 12 rubbers in their unexpected victory of 2015.

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