2016 ATP World Tour: Rating the Top 5 players

#1. Andy Murray- 9.5/10

Stellar: Andy Murray capped off a consistent season with the year-end No. 1 title

Andy Murray had a brilliant 2016, and was unarguably the most consistent player on Tour. He began his year by reaching a fifth Australian Open final – where, again, he was beaten by Novak Djokovic in straight sets. He ended his hard-court season with successive third round exits at Indian Wells and Miami.

Murray began his clay-court season by reaching the semi-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters where he was beaten by eventual winner Rafael Nadal before reaching the final of the Madrid Open where he was beaten by Novak Djokovic in three sets.

He finally won his first title of the year by winning the Rome Masters where he beat Djokovic in the final in straight sets. This made him the first British player to win the title since Virginia Wade in 1971, and the first British man since George Patrick Hughes in 1931.

The talented Scot ended his clay-court season by reaching his first ever French Open final before once again losing to Djokovic in four sets.

Following the French Open, tennis legend Ivan Lendl rejoined Murray’s coaching staff as his new coach, following the news of Murray’s split with French Grand Slam winner Amelie Mauresmo.

Murray then had a brilliant grass-court season where he won a record 5th Queen’s Club title which was followed by his second Wimbledon title and third Grand Slam title overall.

After skipping the Rogers Cup, Murray made history at the Rio Olympics where he became the first ever player, male or female, to win two successive Olympic golds in the singles tournament. Murray’s 22-match winning streak came to an end after he lost to Marin Cilic in the final of the Cincinnati Masters which gave the Croat his first Masters 1000 title.

Murray entered the US Open as a heavy favorite but was upset in the quarter-finals by Japanese Kei Nishikori after a thrilling five-setter that lasted almost four hours.

The Asian swing was the start of another winning streak for Murray as he won the China Open and the Shanghai Masters, beating GrigorDimitrov and Roberto Bautista Agut in the finals respectively. His consecutive victories meant that if Murray won the Paris Masters and Djokovic couldn’t reach the final, then Murray would overtake the Serb at the top of the rankings.

While Murray beat Tomas Berdych in the quarters to take on Milos Raonic in the semi-finals, Djokovic lost his last eight tie to Marin Cilic which meant that another win would make Murray the new World No.1. Raonic withdrew from the semi-final before the start of the match which gave Murray a walkover and subsequently the number one ranking, thus becoming the first British man to attain the No.1 ranking since the introduction of the rankings in 1973.

Murray eventually won the tournament with a win over John Isner in the final.

However, his ranking wasn’t completely safe as he had to win the ATP World Tour Finals in London in order to end the year as World No.1 – such had been Djokovic’s early 2016.

After winning all his group games against Kei Nishikori, Marin Cilic, and Stan Wawrinka, Murray beat Milos Raonic 5-7, 7-6, 7-6 in an epic semi-final that lasted for 3 hours and 38 minutes, making it the longest match in the history of the World Tour Finals.

In the final, Murray faced Djokovic for a dramatic finish of the 2016 ATP World Tour that would decide the winner of the World Tour Finals and the year-end World No.1. Murray won in straight sets to win his maiden World Tour Finals and to end the year as World No.1

To sum it all up, 2016 was Murray’s year where he put in a sea of consistent performances with only a few glitches. Hence, he gets a rating of 9.5 for his performances this year and we can hope to see him in even better form next year around.