Andy Murray admits that he doesn’t know how to deal with the fact that he’ll be playing for the world number one ranking, stating that he’s never been in that situation before.
This became possible for the perennial world number two after the surprise loss of top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals of this week’s Paris Masters – an ATP Masters 1000 event. Murray’s match took place after Djokovic’s and also dealt with a tough challenge from Tomas Berdych. Murray prevailed 7-6, 7-5.
“I played some good points in the tie-break and he played some bad ones, I just fought as hard as I could and served well in those moments. I had a few net cords on big points and that helped,” Murray said in the postmatch interview with SkySports.
“The double fault in the tie-break is one of those things that can happen but it did not affect me for the rest of the match and that is positive,” he added.
Murray acknowledged that there’s a bit of pressure in winning the match as he’s now just a few matches away from clinching the world number one ranking for the first time in his career.
“Maybe there are a few more nerves today knowing that the world number one was possible but once you are out there on court it didn’t bother me.”
“I have never been in that position of playing for the world number one spot before so I don’t know how I will deal with it tomorrow.”
“It can be tough for the 45 minutes or so before the match, but it was not my goal to get to world number one this year. I am just pleased with how I am playing over the latter half of this season.”
Murray will face Canada’s Milos Raonic in the highly anticipated semifinal match on Saturday.
