Linda Pearce is the Chief Tennis Writer and general sports reporter for The Age. She writes about a range of sports, including football, netball, and gymnastics. Linda has twice been named Australian tennis writer of the year.
After a season in which he had already reached dizzy heights, Andy Murray saved the best to last by outclassing Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-4 to claim his first ATP World Tour Finals title and secure the year-end top ranking.
Australia has its first champion at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals since the second of Lleyton Hewitt's consecutive successes in 2002, after Victorian John Peers partnered Henri Kontinen of Finland to win the doubles title at London's O2 Arena.
In wildly differing circumstances, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic have arrived at the first championship match in the 27-year history of the season-ending tournament that will decide which man finishes the year at No.1.
Andy Murray remained the requisite one step ahead of rival Novak Djokovic in the duel for the year-end No.1 ranking, but needed to take many, many steps to do so.
He admits he had to "reconnect" with the public, and we are now seeing how successful that has been.
Andy Murray has joined his No.1 rival Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals, as the pair continue to track along parallel paths to a likely showdown for the year-end top ranking in Sunday's decider.
The dream finish to the ATP season inched closer after Andy Murray survived a marathon round-robin challenge from Kei Nishikori to remain unbeaten.
As Novak Djokovic declared "I do not feel vulnerable", Milos Raonic quantified the recent change in the dethroned world No.1's game.
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