Andy Murray spent his career as the fourth man in a group most people call a trio. That came back to him in a surprising way when he visited the Rafael Nadal museum in Mallorca. On October 3, the Brit was invited to play in an exhibition event marking the 10th anniversary of the Rafa Nadal Academy. Murray visited the Academy in Manacor for the Rafa Nadal Academy Slam, which the Spaniard’s team won 4-3.

Ahead of the matches, the former world No. 1 was shown around the museum, and in a vlog he recorded and posted on his YouTube channel “The Set,” he captured what happened next. As he walked through, a staff member had something to clarify. 

“So Rafa won’t tell you, but he doesn’t feel good because we have a room about the Big Three,” he stated. The room revolves around Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic, the three Murray has chased his entire career. Murray did not seem bothered. 

“That’s fine,” Brit replied. The staff member pressed on, explaining what Nadal had told him. 

“I know it’s fine for you, but he told me, like, because he was not the decision to make. He won’t tell you,” the employee added. 

“It’s fine. Not a problem,” Murray added, keeping it light and moving on. 

The exchange was short, but it hinted at how comfortable the two men are with each other after meeting 24 times on tour.

The Big Three area combines an audiovisual zone, original objects and statistics from their era, and elsewhere, simulators and reaction games let visitors test their own speed and reflexes. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic each donated personal items to it, and the space also plays exclusive footage of the trio reflecting on a rivalry that ran for more than two decades. When Federer toured the rebuilt museum in July, almost a year after his previous visit to the academy, he lingered in that room. Nonetheless, it is not the first time the label has followed Murray. The entire conversation around the “Big Three or Big Four” goes back years.

Djokovic had 24 Grand Slam titles at Nadal’s May 2025 Roland Garros farewell, Nadal 22, Federer 20, and Murray three, which made 66 majors for the room’s three players and 69 for the full quartet. Murray’s own record against the three reads 14-11 down to Federer, 25-11 down to Djokovic, and 17-7 down to Nadal. Add it up, and he won 29 of 85 matches against them, at least seven against each.

His first Slam final came by beating Nadal, then world No. 1, in four sets in the 2008 US Open semifinal, though the two never actually met in a Slam final. At Roland Garros, Nadal beat Murray in both of their meetings. But Murray kept trying to bend that ledger, and the furthest he got was in the year 2016.

On May 7 of that year, Murray beat Nadal 7-5, 6-4 in the Madrid Open semifinal, ending a 13-match winning streak for the Spaniard. It was the last of their 24 meetings. From Madrid to the Paris Masters, Murray reached 11 finals in 12 events and won eight, and on November 7, after 76 weeks at No. 2 spread across seven stints, he became world No. 1, the first British man to do so.

He also ended the Big Three’s 666-week run at the top and was the oldest first-time No. 1 since John Newcombe in 1974. At the Nitto ATP Finals, he got past a Milos Raonic match point in the semifinal, then beat Djokovic in the decider, the first player outside the Big Three to clinch the year-end No. 1 spot since Andy Roddick in 2003.

A right hip injury drove the decline that followed, and the effort of his five-set loss to Stan Wawrinka at the 2017 French Open was the final straw for the joint, with a hip resurfacing following 18 months later.

The shorthand shifted as his career wound down. He played his first full season since 2016 in 2021. Even as he continued his comeback in 2022, climbing back into the world’s top 50 for the first time since 2018, hiccups here and there didn’t get off his back. That May, he was scheduled to face Novak Djokovic in the Madrid Open third round for their first meeting since 2017. However, Murray withdrew shortly before the match because of food poisoning.

For what it’s worth, though, his rivals have always defended his place in the group. “He’s the only player I’ve played against in every final (of Slam). Might be the case with Rafa as well. He’s definitely next to Rafa and Roger, the greatest rivals I ever had,” Djokovic said on Tennis Channel in 2022.

Federer, too, put him at the very top. “From my side Andy, I have so much respect. I loved playing against you, even though I lost so many times against you and it was brutal,” he said when Murray retired in 2024. And more than a decade ago, he had already made it clear that “Nobody has a clear edge over the other, I find, at the very top, if you take us four.”

Even when Murray signaled his retirement in January 2019, the AP reported that Nadal had long known the Big Four would eventually become the Big Three (none of them had retired by that point). He called it “very bad news”. Still, Murray has spent the time since answering for the label.

Federer, Djokovic and Murray walked out together at Nadal’s Roland Garros farewell on May 25, 2025, and Nadal told them that after years of fighting, time changes the perspective on everything. Yet, criticism for Murray cropped up out of nowhere.

In a Tennis Podcast interview reported in December 2025, Murray said he was fully aware of where he sits in the pecking order, but that for a stretch of his career, most big events, Slams, Masters 1000s, Olympics and Davis Cup alike, went to one of the four. In the same interview, he responded to the criticism that he had gatecrashed Nadal’s farewell, saying that he had not asked to go and that Nadal had asked him to be there. In June last year, TNT Sports had also quoted Murray saying the Big Three-or-Four debate was not important and not something he loses sleep over, and that he would “never claim to be on the same level as them”.

This year in July, in an interview with We Love Tennis, he did say that he probably would have won more majors without the three, but that perspective never lasted long, and especially since retirement, he has only been grateful that he was lucky to face them on the biggest stages. But there is still a big regret, which he shared on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast during the Laver Cup.

He said he did regret “not socialising a little bit more with those guys,” explaining that honest conversation with a rival the night before a major is hard, and that he would not tell one about a bad forehand or a sore back.

That said, others have weighed in on the debate as well. Andre Agassi told New Balls Please in February 2026 that “it’s a Big Four,” pointing to Murray reaching No. 1 and winning multiple Slams, and called the era a “magical generation”.

Murray praises museum and shares early Nadal memories

The awkward moment didn’t ruin Murray’s visit. In the Vlog, he spent time looking at Nadal’s trophies and early memorabilia. Speaking at the end of the video, he was anything but disappointed.

“I love going around the museum. For me, that was the best part of it,” Murray said in the episode.  

The 39-year-old even recalled that he first saw Nadal when he was about 12, and the Spaniard was about 13. He remembered urging his coach, along with the other boys on his team, to come and watch an unbelievable Spanish kid. The coach was unimpressed. He said Nadal “just looks like a whole lot of huff and puff to me.” It was a funny reminder of how wrong early judgments can be. 

The Vlog even captures the two discussing how the French Open replica trophies differ in size from year to year. Nadal can be heard saying he complained about it for a couple of years.