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Andy Murray meets Novak Djokovic in the final match of the season to determine who will be world number one.

To both these players this match means more than just winning another trophy. Sunday the 20^th of November will either see Murray or Djokovic crowned as world number one to end a trilling season for tennis fans.

2016 Court Success

For Andy Murray, 2016 has been the best year of his career and is the player who’s been in the better form heading into the final. When it comes to titles this season, Andy Murray is the superior of the two by winning a career high of nine titles in comparison to Novak’s six.

Andy had a disappointing start to the season with shocking defeats at tournaments such as Indian Wells and Miami, where he lost in the third round to world number 53 Federico Delbonis and Grigor Dimitrov. Novak went onto to win these two tournaments.

Novak continued his excellent form from 2015 into the start of the 2016 season. Novak won the Australian Open and the French Open at the start of the season that lead to him becoming the champion of all four grand slams at one time, which hasn’t been achieved since Rod Laver 47 years ago.

Murray started to gain form in the second half of the season with astonishing months since Novak’s success in June. Since June, Murray only lost three matches which lead to him winning Wimbledon, Olympic gold and six other tournaments.

What’s to win?

There is a lot on the line in this year’s ATP World Tour Final which is hosted at the O2, the champion will not only be crowned as the winner of ATP World Tour but will finish as world no.1.

Murray is currently on an impressive winning streak of 23 matches which has led to him surpassing Djokovic to become world no.1 after the Paris Masters two weeks ago, Murray will be hopeful of holding his position at the top of the ranking at the end of the season.

Even though Murray is currently on an impressive winning streak of 23 matches, this is his first final but Novak has been astounding at ATP World Tour Finals. He has won the tournament every single year since 2012, with a record of 22 wins out of his last 23 matches.

Journey to the final

In the first three matches of the tournament they both are undefeated and only dropped a set this tournament. With Murray beating Cilic 6-3, 6-2 in his first match, in his second match he defeated Nishikori 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 and in his last group match he was victorious over Wawrinka 6-4,6-2.

Djokovic on the other hand started his journey with a win against Thiem 6-7, 6-0, 6-2, in his second match he defeated Raonic 7-6, 7-6 and in his last group match he was victorious over Goffin 6-1, 6-2.

Saturday’s Semi-Final saw Novak destroying Kei Nishikori 6-1, 6-1, however Andy Murray struggled to defeat Milos Raonic after having to battle with Raonic to save a match point. The match finished 5-7,7-6, 7-6 to Murray.

Murray & Djokovic stats heading into the final

Head to Head

When it comes to head to head, Novak has defeated Murray 70% of the time with 24 wins out of 34 meetings. The Serbian has defeated Murray five of the last six meetings between each other.

The previous five matches between the pair have been in finals, so they have experience of battling out with each other in highly competitive matches that determines a champion.

Murray and Novak have only been matched up with each other once in this tournament, this happened in the group stage of the 2012 ATP World Tour Finals. In this match the Serbian had to come back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

In 2016, Murray has had four final matches against Djokovic, however Djokovic has been victories three of the four finals. Djokovic defeated Murray in the final of the French Open, Madrid Masters and the Australian Open but Murray was able to defeat the Serbian in the final of the Rome Masters.

Condition heading into the final

After Djokovic, obliterated Nishikori in Saturday’s semi-finals, Nishikori stated ‘I think physically, Novak is much fresher.’ This is because Nishikori semi-final match against Djokovic only lasted one hour and six minutes but Murray’s record-breaking semi-final lasted three hours and 32 minutes.

Earlier in the tournament, Murray defeated Nishikori however the match lasted three hours and 20 minutes, which suggests that Djokovic will be in the better condition of the two for the final.

Player’s views ahead of the final

The main criticism towards Murray in his recent rise to world number one is that he hasn’t been able to defeat Novak. He replied to this criticism by saying ‘I can only beat what’s in front of me.’

Murray also stated that he’ll try his hardest on Sunday’s last match of the season by saying ‘I’ll give my best tomorrow and hopefully that’s enough.’

On the other hand, the Serbian suggests that he’s established his best form at the best time possible and he can’t wait for Sunday’s historic match.

‘The best performance of the tournament came really at the right time,’ he stated this after his win against Nishikori.

‘I’m honoured to be part of history. I’ve been told this is the first time two players are deciding the No. 1 ranking in the final match,’ he added.

Who will end up as champion?

Heading into the final, it’s hard to predict who will end up as champion and world number one. At the start of the tournament, Andy would’ve been clear favourite to be champion with the excellent form in recent months, however Andy has had a harder week on court with longer match durations. This means that Andy has had less recovery time. Especially after being on court for an extra two hours and 32 minutes in his semi-final match, which will benefit the Serbian.

Djokovic will have a stronger mentality than Murray as Djokovic has won 70% of the matches between each other so it’s difficult to not back Djokovic.