1st British man to end year on top
Andy Murray hailed his ATP Tour Finals triumph against Novak Djokovic on Sunday as the perfect finish to a dream season as the Scot wrapped up the yearend world No. 1 ranking.
Murray produced a superb display to defeat Djokovic 6- 3, 6- 4 in the final at London’s O2 Arena. His spectacular rise to the top of the men’s rankings was made official on Monday with the Scot topping the end of season ATP charts on 12,685 points.
Djokovic must make do with ending 2016 in second on 11,780 points.
The 29- year- old Murray is the first British man to finish in pole position since the inception of the ATP rankings in 1973 and the first player other than Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to end the year top since Andy Roddick in 2003.
It caps an incredible 11 months for Murray, who won Wimbledon for the second time, claimed a second Olympic gold medal and became a father for the first time.
“Right now to finish the year like this, this is the best possible way, obviously,” he said. “It was a big, big match against someone that would be my main rival really throughout my career.
“We played in all of the Slam finals, Olympics, and now a match to finish the year as No. 1. It was obviously a big match, a very important win for me.”
Just 24 hours after he played the longest match in tournament history to beat Milos Raonic in three hours and 39 minutes, Murray looked surprisingly fresh and he admitted it was crucial he got ahead quickly to avoid being dragged into another draining encounter.
“I felt tired. I didn’t feel great this morning, just a bit sluggish, a bit heavylegged,” he said. “Thankfully the first seven games, there was no long rallies really at all, which for us is strange.
“It wasn’t really until the middle of the second set when the rallies started to get extended and longer that my legs were starting to feel it.
“That’s why it became harder to close the match out because I knew the longer the match went, the worse I was going to feel, and probably the better he was going to play, too.”
Having lost 13 of his last 15 matches against Djokovic, including the Australian and French Open finals this year, Murray said it was extra special to achieve his double success against his old rival.
“Over the last couple of years I lost a lot of the big matches against him,” Murray said. “This one was a big match and I managed to get over the line.”
Djokovic had no complaints and admitted he had been well below his best in a lethargic performance that included 30 unforced errors.
“I just played very poorly and made a lot of unforced errors from the backhand side. It just wasn’t my day,” Djokovic said.
“Credit to Andy for being mentally tough and playing the right shots, making me play extra shots in every rally. He definitely deserved to win.”