Andy Murray from Great Britain has become the world's top male tennis player for the first time, dethroning Novak Djokovic, the most dominant player in recent history. Murray claimed the top spot after reaching the finals of the Paris Masters event due to a walkover from Milos Raonic. Murray was guaranteed to become number one in the world so long as he made the final of the Paris Masters event after Novak Djokovic, who was competing in the same event, lost early to Marin Cilic.
This major development in the sport of tennis brings the "Big 4" phenomenon full circle. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray have been the most dominant four players over the last 13 years, yet Murray was the sole member of the elite group who had yet to stand atop the world rankings. Many found this fact unsurprising; Murray had raised doubts early on about his ability to win Grand Slams, which his main rivals were already winning in spades. The competition facing Murray was also ferocious; the other members of the "Big 4" are already considered to be among the greatest players to have ever played the game, and were simply dominant over the rest of the competition.
2016, however, proved to be Murray's best year of his career. After reaching the finals of the year's first two Grand Slams, Murray captured his second Wimbledon crown and went on to win the Olympic gold medal in Rio (having successfully defended his gold medal from the 2012 Olympics, an unprecedented feat). Though he would lose relatively early in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, Murray was already closing the gap between him and then-number one Novak Djokovic; Djokovic had lost early at Wimbledon and in the first round of the Olympics, effectively erasing a plethora of ranking points.
After winning two tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai, as well as another in Vienna, Murray had become a serious threat to Djokovic and his reign at number one. Djokovic would have to lose early in the Paris Masters and Murray would have to reach the final, which many (including Murray) believed an unlikely circumstance at best. Yet shock and surprise came in the form of Marin Cilic who, after 15 loses, finally defeated Djokovic for the first time and opened the door for Murray to take the crown.
It was, in the end, somewhat anticlimactic. Raonic, who was the last obstacle in Murray's path to number one, was forced to pull out of the tournament before the match even started due to injury. Although Djokovic still has a window of opportunity to end the year as number one if he wins the last remaining event of the season, he will have to get through Murray to do it, who has proven to be the stronger player of the two this year. Finally, it seems, Andy Murray has broken through.
