World winner: Norrie notches Rotterdam victory to continue fine start to 2021
Cameron Norrie continued his good start to 2021 with victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili in the first round of the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.
British No 3 Norrie, who reached the third round of the Australian Open, won two matches in qualifying to reach the main draw and was a 6-0, 6-3 winner over 40th-ranked Basiliashvili.
The Georgian has been on a wretched run of form, but is one of the major beneficiaries of a change to the ranking system because of the coronavirus pandemic allowing players to count results from two years rather than one.
Basilashvili, facing charges of domestic violence in his homeland, has now lost 14 of his last 16 matches .
Later, Andy Murray fought back from a set down to beat Robin Haase 2-6, 7-6, 6-3 to progress into the second round in Rotterdam. Murray showed all his old fighting spirit to clinch victory in just over two-and-a-half hours.
Novak Djokovic has equalled Roger Federer's record of 310 weeks ranked world number one.
The 33-year-old had made chasing the mark, which he is guaranteed to break next week, one of his major career goals.
He has been helped by temporary changes to the ranking system because of the coronavirus pandemic that means players can currently count tournaments from two years instead of one.
But there is no doubt Djokovic remains the world's best player, as evidenced by his ninth victory at the Australian Open last month.
He has begun 2021 by winning nine consecutive matches, while last year, he did not lose a completed match until the French Open final in October.
Djokovic's fifth spell at the top of the rankings began on February 3 last year, while he has been number one for all but 32 weeks since Federer hit 310 weeks in June 2018.
His longest stint as number one was 122 weeks between July 2014 and November 2016.
Djokovic sits on 12,030 points, more than 2000 clear of Rafael Nadal, with Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem the only other players with more than 7000 points.
Breaking the record is set to mean Djokovic plays only sparingly while restrictions prevent his young family from travelling alongside him.
The Serbian said last week he is heavily prioritising the grand slams as he chases down his other major goal.
Djokovic's trophy in Melbourne took him to 18 slam titles, two behind the joint holders of the men's record, Federer and Nadal.