Murray beats Djokovic´, ends year on top
WITHOUT A doubt, Andy Murray will be the No. 1 player in the world for the rest of the year.
The Wimbledon champion needed to win the final match of the season to ensure his place at the top. And he did it, rather easily.
Murray beat Novak Djokovic´ 6-3, 6-4 yesterday to earn his first title at the ATP finals, and make sure he remained No. 1 until next season.
“I would like to try and stay there, obviously. It’s taken a huge effort the last five, six months to get there,” said Murray, who took over the top ranking two weeks ago and has now won 24 straight matches.
“I’m aware that’s going to be extremely difficult because I had a great year this year. I only managed to do it by one match.”
Murray replaced Djokovic´as the top-ranked player in Paris, but the second-ranked Serb could have regained the No. 1 position by winning yesterday at the O2 Arena.
And Murray seemed vulnerable heading into the final, especially after playing three sets against Milos Raonic in Saturday’s semifinals. He started against Djokovic´with a pair of doublefaults in the opening game, but it
was soon his opponent that was struggling with his serve as the unforced errors piled up.
“There was no serious chance for me to win today’s match,” Djokovic´said. “From the very beginning, we could
see that. He was just a better player all in all.”
Normally so steady with his groundstrokes, Djokovic´found himself missing easy shots time after time, finishing the match with a whopping 30 unforced errors and only 13 winners. Murray had 15 unforced errors and 13 winners.
In the first set, Djokovic´had a routine smash that he whacked wide. And in the second, he netted a basic forehand volley.
It never got much better for the 12-time Grand Slam champion, who was trying to win a record-tying sixth title at the season-ending tournament and finish the year as the top-ranked player for the fifth time.
TOP SPOT
Murray is the first man other than Djokovic´, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal to finish the year as the No. 1-ranked player since Andy Roddick in 2003.
He took over the top spot on November 7 after winning his eighth title of the season at the Paris Masters. He also reached the Australian Open and French Open finals, losing to Djokovic on both occasions, but won his second straight Olympic gold medal in singles at the Rio de Janeiro Games after claiming his second Wimbledon title.
Yesterday, he capped a long stretch of playing some of the best tennis of his life, and the best tennis in the world.