Novak Djokovic vs. Kei Nishikori

ANDY Murray said last night that he plans to stay at the top of the world rankings as long as possible after confirming his status as the Christmas No 1 of world tennis with his maiden ATP World Tour Finals title.

Andy Murray beat Novak Djokovic at the ATP World Tour Finals to claim his first title and, perhaps more importantly, end the year as the men’s world number one tennis player for the first time in his career.

Djokovic, the four-time defending champion and five-time victor, breezed past Japan’s Kei Nishikorei 6-1, 6-1 in just 66 minutes in a later match.

After Murray recovered from serving a pair of double faults in his first service game, defeat never looked likely.

“It was unbelievably tough, ” Murray said.

Djokovic added: “I just played very poorly and made a lot of unforced errors from the backhand side”.

“I obviously want to try and achieve as much as I can these next few years because I’m not going to be around forever”, Murray, who won a second Wimbledon title and the Rio Olympics this year, told reporters after his 6-3 6-4 win at the O2 Arena. “To hold all four Grand Slams like Novak did this year was a very special achievement and something we won’t see for a very long time”. “It’s nice and I’m happy for them that I managed to win a big one like this”.

Murray who was on a 23-match winning streak has now ended Djokovic’s run and dominance as world number one.

It must be mentioned that Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have taken turns holding the No. 1 slot over the past 12 years. “He was just a better player all in all”. Instead, Murray chased him down by the end of this season and is likely to retain it until the clay season and even until Wimbledon.

But the energy wasn’t to lead to any further damage for the 29-year-old, Raonic’s baseline work taking the set to a tie-breaker in the capital.

There appeared no way back when a lacklustre Djokovic was broken again to trail 4-1 in the second set but an immediate re-break set home nerves jangling just a little.

Murray had lost 13 of his previous 15 meetings with Djokovic, including the French Open final six months ago. “It’s something I genuinely never expected to do”, Murray said afterward.

Raonic calmly clinched the opener and when Murray topped a dismal forehand halfway up the net to drop serve in the third game of the second set he slumped heavily into his chair.