The year of the Murray brothers
The Murray brothers made sure that 2016 will be a year to remember as they ended the season in style.
Both Andy and Jamie Murray left the O2 with the ranking of the best players in the world.
Novak Djokovic was swept aside by Andy Murray, who showed just why he is the best singles player on the planet with a commanding performance in the final of the ATP Masters. And Jamie and partner Bruno Soares secured their spot at the top of the doubles rankings , despite missing out at the semi-final stage of the London tournament.
There had been fears that the younger Murray brother would not have the energy to see off old rival Djokovic, after he fought out a gruelling semi final on Saturday with Milos Raonic which lasted more than three-and-a-half hours.
But just 24 hours later he made quick work of what was, at least on paper, a tight match-up against Djokovic.
The first few games were relatively close, however, the Dunblane tennis ace pressed for the break at 3-3 after Djokovic sent an easy smash wildly long and wide.
The breakthrough came two games later when Murray fired a forehand into the corner for a 5-3 lead, and the set followed after 46 minutes.
He raced to a 4-1 lead in the second set, before the Serb rallied back to take it to 4-3, however, Murray rarely looked like losing as he extended his amazing 24-match unbeaten run.
“I’m very happy to win and to be world number one is very special,” said Andy.“It’s very special playing against Novak in a match like this.”
Andy now looks likely to hold on to the spot for at least a few months, with the rankings based on improvements in performance from the previous year.
“I felt tired,”he said.“I was hitting the ball well [in warm-up] but felt a bit sluggish and heavy-legged. We’ve played better matches together. There were mistakes from both of us, but I was solid enough when I needed and tactically I played a good match.
“I would like to try and stay there, obviously – it’s taken a huge effort to get there.
“I’m aware that’s going to be extremely difficult. I had a great year this year and I only managed to do it by one match.”
Brother Jamie and partner Bruno Soares raced through the group stages of the final tournament of the season.
However, their progress came to an abrupt halt when they were beaten by South Africa’s Raven Klaasen and American Rajeev Ram 6-1, 6-4 in an hour.
Fortunately, the pair had already overtaken Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut in the year-end rankings.
The Scot and the Brazilian were presented with a trophy to mark their achievement by Chris Kermode, the head of the Association of Tennis Professionals, to cap a great year for the Dunblane boys.