Murray cools hype around reaching top spot in world rankings

Andy Murray played down talk on Monday of claiming the world number one spot for the first time in his career. The 29-year-old Briton has been on the circuit for 11 years and has matured in the shadow of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

Andy Murray has a chance at the Paris Masters of reaching world number one for the first time in his career. Reuters/Aly Song

Those former world number ones hold 31 Grand Slam crowns between them but neither has won a major since Nadal’s triumph at Roland Garros in 2014.

Novak Djokovic is prospering as the current king of the courts. The 29-year-old has reigned over the men’s game since he claimed his second title at Wimbledon in July 2014. That triumph was his seventh Grand Slam trophy. Five more have been harvested as the circuit supremo.

But going into the Paris Masters – the final second tier tournament of the season – Murray hovers 415 points behind Djokovic and he will usurp the Serb in the rankings if he wins in Paris and Djokovic fails to reach the final on Sunday.

“Even if I win all of my matches this week, I still might not get there,” said Murray as he prepared for his second round tie against the veteran Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.

The last time Murray played competitively in the French capital he lost the French Open final to Djokovic. But since that defeat, Murray has claimed crowns at Queen’s, Wimbledon, the Olympics, Shanghai and Vienna.

Djokovic, by his lofty standards, has been in poor form. He has only claimed the Toronto and Cincinnati Masters.

“He was in the final at the US Open and reached the semis in Shanghai. Djokovic is doing all right,” Murray added wrily.

The possibility of a change at the top is one of the main intrigues at the Paris tournament. Third seed Stan Wawrinka contributed to Djokovic's malaise by beating him in New York in September to win his first US Open.

He said Murray’s rise had been noted in the locker rooms. “It’s interesting for us players too,” he added. “It’s been a bit more than a year that we have felt that Andy is getting closer to Novak.

“After the French Open there was still a big gap but Andy has been making the finals of virtually all of his tournaments for the past year. So what he has been doing at the end of this season is even more impressive.”

The omens in Paris are more propitious for Djokovic. He has won the title in Bercy for the last three years and he swept past Murray 6-2 6-4 in last year’s showdown.

“My goal wasn’t to finish No 1 at the end of this year,” said Murray. “I want to finish this year as strong as possible and I think there is a much better chance of becoming number one in the early part of next year, which is what I targeted rather than this week.”