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Sports

Murray cements new number one status with Paris Masters win

November 6, 2016

Andy Murray celebrated his promotion to world number one by winning the Paris Masters on Sunday. The Brit, who officially takes over the top spot on Monday from Novak Djokovic, beat John Isner in two sets.

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Frankreich Andy Murray gewinnt Paris Masters
Image: Reuters/G. Fuentes

The victory is Murray's eighth title of a memorable season and it took him a little over two hours to wrap it up 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4 over the big serving American. 

The Scot saved all six break points he faced against an opponent who hit 18 aces. In all of their eight meetings, Isner has only managed to break the Murray serve once.

Victory stretched the new number one's winning streak to 19 matches after playing in his 12th final of the season. The 29-year-old also added 400 ranking points to cushion what had been a slender five-point lead over Djokovic.

"To my team and my family, this has been an incredible journey to get to the top of the rankings," Murray said after the match. "I could not have done it without you. They make a lot of sacrifices to allow me to compete and travel the world. I will work as hard as I can to continue getting better."

His overall record in 2016 now stands at 73 wins and just 9 losses. He also holds trophies from seven different Masters 1000 events and is the third Briton to win the Paris event after Tim Henman (2003) and Greg Rusedski (1998). 

But Murray didn't have it all his own way on Sunday, as the towering American recovered from a first set loss to take the second in a tie break. The Scot was then frustrated as he twice failed to convert break points during Isner's first two service games in the deciding set.

But Murray showed impressive resilience to take the trophy when Isner netted on match point.

mp/sb (DPA/AFP)