Murray Wins Paris Title, Claims Top Spot in World Rankings
Over the weekend, Andy Murray surpassed Novak Djokovic for the number one spot in the ATP World Tour Rankings, becoming just the 26th player ever to claim the world’s top spot.
“In the beginning of my career, I’ve always wanted to win a Grand Slam, but now that I’ve gotten older, getting to No. 1 was something I have tried to do. I needed to improve my consistency and the last couple of seasons. I’m happy to have done that,” said Murray. “I have to give a lot of credit to Jamie Delgado. To get to No. 1 it takes a full year’s work, and he’s been there for every tournament. He’s been there for every single day working with me from the beginning of the year.
It’s something I have never achieved before and wasn’t something that I necessarily felt like I was going to do.”
Murray has had the best year of his career in 2016, capturing the Wimbledon title as well as an Olympic Gold Medal, and had been nipping at Djokovic’s heels for the bulk of the second half of this season. The door to leap over Djokovic opened even wider at the BNP Paribas Paris Masters, where the Serb lost to Marin Cilic in the quarterfinals, meaning if Murray were to reach the Paris final he would take over as the new number one.
He would do more than that, beating Tomas Berdych in straight sets to reach the semifinals, and then receiving a walkover into the final after Milos Raonic was forced to withdraw.
“It feels a little bit strange how it’s happened today,” Murray said. “And obviously unfortunate that Milos is injured.”
But Murray made sure to put a stamp on his new title as world number one, defeating American John Isner 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-4 to claim the Paris title, the 14th Masters title of his career.
“I’m happy that I managed to get there. I was pleased. I felt really nervous before the match and I didn’t feel flat or anything like that, which was the most pleasing thing about today for me,” Murray said about the fear of having a letdown in the final. “It’s great to win, but sometimes after you achieve something big or something that you maybe didn’t expect, it can be quite easy to have a letdown and feel a little bit flat.”
