ANDY MURRAY CLINCHES NO. 1 RANKING IN THE WORLD, AWAITS JOHN ISNER IN PARIS TITLE MATCH

Written by: Staff on 5th November 2016

BNP Paribas 2016 Masters Tennis Tournament

ANDY MURRAY CLINCHES NO. 1 RANKING IN THE WORLD, AWAITS JOHN ISNER IN PARIS TITLE MATCH

epa05618955 Andy Murray of Britain attends a training session at the BNP Paribas 2016 Masters tennis tournament in Paris, France, 05 November 2016. Murray becomes world number 1, taking Novak Djokovic's place, after winning his semifinal match by default after Milos Roanic of Canada forfeited on injury. EPA/IAN LANGSDON |

By Ricky Dimon

With Novak Djokovic having lost prior to the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Masters, Andy Murray needed only to reach the final in order to guarantee an ascension to the No. 1 ranking in the world. That is exactly what happened on Saturday, and Murray did not even have to play a match.

The No. 2 seed got a walkover through his scheduled semifinal showdown against Milos Raonic, with the Canadian citing a quad injury that he sustained during a quarterfinal victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Milos Raonic of Canada returns the ball to Jo-Wifried Tsonga of France during their quarter final match at the BNP Paribas 2016 Masters tennis tournament in Paris, France, 04 November 2016. EPA/IAN LANGSDON

“Yesterday at 4-2 in the first set I started feeling some pain in my leg,” Raonic explained. “I didn’t think too much of it at that point. This morning I had trouble waking up and getting out of bed, so we did some tests. I had an MRI half an hour ago and they found that I have a Grade 1 tear in the right quad. Unfortunately, I’m not able to compete against Andy.”

“It feels a little bit strange how it’s happened today and obviously unfortunate that Milos is injured,” Murray said. “To get to this stage is about 12 months of tournaments. The last few months have been the best of my career and I’m very proud to get to this moment.

“In the beginning of my career, I 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 have done that.

“It’s something I have never achieved before and wasn’t something that I necessarily felt like I was going to do even this year, even after the French Open or the beginning of the year. I was so far behind in terms of points and the amount of matches it would take me to win. I never expected to do what I had done after the French Open, so I was really down after I lost that match.

“But things can turn around quickly in this sport and it’s just a strange sport. You had Novak losing yesterday to a guy (Marin Cilic) who he won 14 times in a row against. And then John (Isner) beating Cilic today who he’d lost six in a row against. Stuff can turn around quick.”

John Isner of the USA returns the ball to his compatriot Jack Sock during their quarter final match at the BNP Paribas 2016 Masters tennis tournament in Paris, France, 04 November 2016. EPA/IAN LANGSDON

Murray hopes things don’t turn around in his head-to-head series with Isner when they battle for the Paris title on Sunday. All seven of their previous meetings have gone the way of the Scot, who is 6-0 at Isner’s expense on hard courts (1-0 indoors). They just recently faced each other in the Vienna quarterfinals, with Murray dominating 6-1, 6-3.

A much different Isner, however, has been on display this week. At risk of missing out on a 2017 Australian Open seed when this tournament began, Isner will find himself back in the top 20 on Monday regardless of the outcome against Murray. The 6’10” American has advanced this week with defeats of Mischa Zverev, David Ferrer, Jan-Lennard Struff, Jack Sock, and Cilic. Previously 0-6 against the London-bound Croat, Isner crushed Cilic 6-4, 6-3 in the semis.

“I took the court today with a lot of confidence,” Isner commented. “It’s the first time all year coming into a match I’d won four matches in a row. So I knew I was playing well. I knew I was playing the right way, and really, from the get-go, I was serving extremely well. That took a lot of pressure off me.”