Tennis: Murray’s greatest year
“Andy Murray already wore the crown of the best tennis player in the world,” said Matt Dickinson in The Times. And in London on Sunday, two weeks after he finally reached the top of the world rankings, he played like the king. The Scot capped an extraordinary year – perhaps “the greatest ever by a British sportsman” – by beating Novak Djokovic in straight sets to win the ATP World Tour Finals. Since losing a Davis Cup tie in September, Murray has “won and won and won”: if that run had “lacked anything”, it was a win over Djokovic, whom he’d beaten only twice in 15 prior contests. Yet this week he overcame fatigue to dismiss his nemesis “majestically” and claim his 24th victory in a row, and his fifth straight title.
Most people had expected “a routine victory”, said Jacob Steinberg in The Guardian – for Djokovic, that is. The Serb usually knows precisely how to unsettle Murray; he had never previously lost an indoor match to him. And the O2 Arena, more than any other venue, is Djokovic’s fortress: before this loss, he had won four World Tour Finals in a row. His form may have nosedived since June, but at this tournament he seemed to be back to his “fearsome best” – and he was far better rested than Murray, who had an arduous route to the final. On Sunday, however, Djokovic was a “pale shadow” of his former self, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph: “listless, distracted, error- prone”; Murray, by contrast, was “a study in calm”. For a decade, the Scot had to “follow in the contrails of three of the greatest players who have ever lived”. Now, following this year’s Wimbledon and Olympic triumphs, he has completed “one of the most remarkable coups in sport”. His days as “the reluctant bridesmaid” are well and truly over.
What a year for British tennis, said Mike Dickson in the Daily Mail. Johanna Konta became the first British woman to break into the top ten in 32 years; 21-year-old Kyle Edmund reached the last 16 of the US Open and cracked the men’s top 50. And, remarkably, two Murrays now occupy world No. 1 spots, said Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph. Jamie Murray, Andy’s older brother, and his Brazilian partner Bruno Soares are ending the year top of the doubles rankings, even though they failed to win the World Tour Finals. Unlike his intense, single-minded brother, Jamie can appear “offhand”. But his laid-back manner belies all the work he has put into turning his career around: less than four years ago, it was in “such a state” that he considered retirement. The 30-year-old “reinvented his game” and found a new partner, with Soares proving a “perfect” match. This year, they have won two grand slams in the same season, the Australian Open and US Open – a feat even Andy “has yet to equal”.