Andy Murray ended the Big Three’s 666-week No. 1 reign on this day in 2016 after dethroning Novak Djokovic at No. 1 in the PIF ATP rankings in a scintillating run.
The Scot spent most of 2015 in the Top 3 of the PIF ATP Rankings and started 2016 by reaching the fifth and final Australian Open title match of his career. Murray fell to Djokovic in the championship match and lost again to the Serbian in the Madrid final four months later. He got his revenge in Rome, where he captured his first ATP Masters 1000 title of the season and backed it up by reaching another major final at Roland Garros.
While Murray’s progress to this point in 2016 had been strong, the grass court swing was the first major highlight. As was so often the case in his career, the then 29-year-old performed best on the London lawns, winning Queen’s and Wimbledon to become just the seventh player to complete the Queen’s-Wimbledon double. Alcaraz would also achieve this feat in 2023.
During the North American hard court swing, Murray reached the final in Cincinnati and the last eight at the US Open. When Murray arrived in Beijing in early October, he was still 4,695 points behind world No. 1 Djokovic. However, it was two weeks and ten consecutive Murray wins in China that provided late-season intrigue for the 2016 race to become ATP Year End No. 1, presented by PIF.
He took his total to six titles for the season by claiming the trophy in Beijing and then seven at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, victories that narrowed the gap between world No. 1 Djokovic and Murray from 4,695 to 2,415 points. The late season wins just kept coming when he returned to Europe.
He triumphed at the ATP 500 indoor hard-court event in Vienna to move within reach of Djokovic before capturing his 14th and ultimately final ATP Masters 1000 title of his career in Paris. With the Serbian only reaching the quarter-finals in the French capital, Murray became the 26th player to ascend to No. 1.
At the Nitto ATP Finals two weeks later, Murray defeated Djokovic again in the title match to earn ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF awards, capping off a perfect year in which he had a record of 78-9, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. Murray spent 41 weeks at No. 1 before Rafael Nadal surpassed him in August 2017.
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