Britain’s Davis Cup captain Leon Smith has backed Andy Murray to stay on top of the world for the foreseeable future.
Murray moved into the world number one spot for the first time over the weekend when the Wimbledon champion reached the Paris Masters final.
The 29-year-old Scot celebrated by defeating John Isner on Sunday to claim the Paris crown before jetting back to England to start his preparations for the World Tour Finals, which get underway in London this weekend.
Having knocked Novak Djokovic out of pole position after the Serb’s 122 consecutive weeks as world number one, Murray now needs to match or better his old rival’s performance in the Tour Finals to ensure he ends 2016 still in first place.
Smith, who captained Britain to the Davis Cup title in 2015, is confident his star player will not only finish the year at number one but also cement his hold on the ranking next season.
“He’s got a lot to look forward to as we move into 2017. It will mean a lot to him. He’s worked that hard to get to that point now,” Smith told the BBC yesterday.
“The way the points system works, he’s got a good opportunity if you look at the first quarter of 2017 with two big Masters Series events in Indian Wells and Miami where he didn’t perform at his best so he doesn’t have many points to defend so that’s an opportunity for him.
“Andy’s so professional and diligent with the process he goes into that he won’t start thinking too far ahead and worry too much about holding onto it.
“It’ll be about going back every single day and for him after a couple of days rest he’ll be starting up again for the Tour Finals next week.
“It’s been a long time since people have been battling it out for that year-end spot. And that’ll be the case for Andy and Novak.”