Andy Murray celebrated his 700th career victory in Indian Wells today—and reflected on his most transformative triumph.

Asked to identify his most perfect performance, Murray selected his 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 dismantling of world No. 1 Roger Federer in the 2012 Olympic gold-medal match at Wimbledon as his peak play.

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"Probably, I mean, the final of the Olympics in 2012 for me was probably one of the best matches that I played in terms of like the occasion and everything," Murray told the media in Indian Wells. "I thought that would probably be the one I would pick as my sort of best performance."

It was a career-changing triumph for Murray, who fell to Federer in four sets weeks earlier in the 2012 Wimbledon final. Murray conceded that loss left him wondering if he'd ever master a major.

Defeating Federer before a raucous home crowd in the Olympic final rematch not only clinched Murray's first gold medal it infused him with the confidence he could win a Grand Slam.

"After that match against Roger in the 2012 Wimbledon final, I was obviously very upset for a few days after that, kind of accepted I guess that it might not happen, may not win a major," Murray said. "But what I could control was the effort and everything that I was putting into trying to keep going, keep improving.

"Winning that sort of Olympics four weeks later in the final against Roger on the same court in the fashion that I did was a big, big step for me and my career, I think."

A fired-up Murray defeated the world's Top 2 in succession at the 2012 Olympics stopping second-ranked Novak Djokovic 7-5, 7-5 in the semifinals.

Murray set the gold standard with his inspired 2012 Olympic run—and has called it one of the weirdest fan encounters of his career as well.



The three-time Grand Slam champion said seeing Federer watch his 2012 Olympic opener against Stan Wawrinka was the only time he's ever felt "quite weird" playing in front of a particular fan.

"When I played in the Olympics against Wawrinka in the first round in London, Federer was sitting in his box for that match," Murray recalled. "That was quite weird. I don't know. It was just a bit weird looking up and seeing him sitting in the players box when usually you look up and see kind of coaches and family and whatnot. He was there in his Swiss track suit and stuff.

"I don't know, he's obviously one of the best players of all time, and he was, yeah, just sitting in the box. I played well in that match, so I don't want to say he put me off."

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