Andy Murray responds to crowd's ovation to open first event as world No 1 in style

Andy Murray received a standing ovation after marking his first match as world No 1 with victory over Marin Cilic at the ATP World Tour Finals.
Andy Murray celebrates a point on his way to victory over Marin Cilic (Picture: John Walton/PA Wire).Andy Murray celebrates a point on his way to victory over Marin Cilic (Picture: John Walton/PA Wire).
Andy Murray celebrates a point on his way to victory over Marin Cilic (Picture: John Walton/PA Wire).

The O2 Arena was certainly a fitting stage for Murray officially to step out on top of the world for the first time and he kept his winning run going with a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory.

That made it 20 successive wins for the Scot, who needs to match Novak Djokovic’s performance this week to ensure he holds onto the ranking until the end of the year.

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Djokovic won his opening match against Dominic Thiem on Sunday and Murray knew he could not afford any slip-ups.

The 29-year-old said: “It was a great atmosphere in here. I played one of my best matches that I’ve played here and I’ll just try to keep it going until the end of the year.”

Victory over Kei Nishikori tomorrow would likely be enough for a first semi-final appearance here for Murray since 2012.

In the earlier match, Stan Wawrinka’s hopes both of finishing the year ranked three and of reaching a fourth straight semi-final at the O2 were dealt a major blow by defeat to Nishikori.

Milos Raonic, a confident winner over Gael Monfils on Sunday, is now in pole position to be best of the rest behind Murray and Djokovic, with Nishikori closing fast after a 6-2 6-3 win.