Number 1

So Roger Federer thinks Andy Murray can become number one. The majority of the headline writers seem to have gone a little overboard ,running with Roger’s  (because we’re best mates) speculative "maybe this year" comment, but a little sensationalism never hurts. Murray has distanced himself from the notion of ending the year on top but is he right to?

Yes. As it currently stands in the race Djokovic has 10,410 points, Roger 8,895 and Murray 6,910. The gap between Murray and Djokovic is therefore 3,500 points and by my reckoning there are 4000 points available to Murray (3500 to Djokovic) which essentially means Murray needs to win in Shanghai, Basel, Paris and each one of his matches at the ATP Tour Finals (which I couldn’t be any more excited about after getting tickets for 4 sessions). At the same time Djokovic would realistically need to lose all 3 tour final matches and be knocked out no later than the QF in the two masters series tournaments.  Of course if the ATP take on board my suggestion and dock Djokovic a point for every £ I’ve lost on him over the last 2 years then Murray has a much stronger chance. All he’d need to do is close the (just shy of) 2,000 point gap to Roger.  As it happens, if I were a betting man I’d rather have money on Roger finishing number 1 than Murray number 2 this year.

Murray’s detractor’s seem to have seized the opportunity to pointlessly attack him. One of my favourite comments (somewhere on the BBC site) went along the lines of “so what? Even if he does become number 1 it’ll only be because Federer’s too old, Djokovic’s knees have gone and Nadal’s so injured he should just retire”. Beyond the fact that, unless I have missed something, Djokovic’s knees are far from gone, it is pathetic reasoning. When Roger is old and grey he will likely be remembered as the greatest competitor in the history of the sport. Nadal will probably be remembered as one of the top 3 or 4 and Djokovic will be a worthy footnote as a fantastic player. Being 4^th in an era that contains all 3 should bring no shame whatsoever.  If he has a good October and January then there is a strong chance he will be number 1 at some point either then or before Wimbledon. No doubt if he does there will be more of the same type of criticism levelled at him but then the same people would probably argue that Lleyton Hewitt didn’t deserve to be number 1 either.