ANDY Murray was plotting future world domination last night after silencing the doubters who said his status as World No 1 was invalid until he had defeated Novak Djokovic.

A 6-3, 6-4 win against his great Serbian rival saw the 29-year-old from Dunblane consolidate his position as the Christmas No 1 of world tennis with his maiden ATP World Tour Finals title. This was the Scot's ninth title of the season - other honours include the Wimbledon title and Olympic gold medal - and saw him stretch his lead over the Serb at the summit of the sport to 630 points.

He will enter January's Australian Open as No 1 seed for the first time in any Grand Slam, in the midst of a winning run which has stretched to five tournaments and 24 matches.

Read more: Andy Murray sitting pretty as undisputed No 1 after Game of Thrones with Novak Djokovic

Unlike his Wimbledon triumph earlier this year, which he celebrated with a boozy night in London's West End, Murray was taking it easy last night. But he had much to celebrate after a big win against his opponent which he feels could give him a mental edge going into 2017. He had previously lost 24 of the 34 previous meetings between the pair, even if this was the first ever meeting where Murray had been the higher-ranked player.

"I don't know if 'satisfaction' is the right word," said Murray. "I mean, it was obviously a big, big match against someone who I've played so many big matches against in my career. My main rival really throughout my career. We've played in all of the slam finals, Olympics, obviously here now, and a match to finish the year No. 1. Obviously this is a major event, as well, and one I've not done well in in the past. So it's been a great week.

"It doesn't really matter what anyone else says," said Murray. "It's kind of how you feel inside. But this one was more important for me because obviously it's a match-up that over the last couple of years I lost a lot of the big matches against him. This one was a big match and I managed to get over the line, even though it was tough at the end. Mentally that will give me a boost going into next year. I'm also happy for my team, because they put a lot of work into getting me ready for these matches. I've lost a lot of them over the years. It's nice and I'm happy for them that I managed to win a big one like this.

Read more: Andy Murray sitting pretty as undisputed No 1 after Game of Thrones with Novak Djokovic

"I'd obviously want to try and achieve as much as I can these next few years because I'm not going to be around forever," he added. "These next few years, obviously I want to try and make them the best of my career and win as much as I can."

Having waited until the age of 29 to ascend to the summit of the rankings, one priority of course is staying there. But there is also a thirst to add to this three Grand Slam titles. "It's taken a huge effort the last five, six months to get there [to No 1] so I would obviously like to stay there," said Murray after a tense victory in a match which, should he lost, would have seen him surrender the throne to Djokovic after just a fortnight. "I'm aware that's going to be extremely difficult because I had a great year this year and I only managed to do it by one match.

"But the majors are what gets me working hard and what really, really motivates me," he added. "When I go away in December to train, I'm training with the Australian Open in mind. The best-of-five-set matches, they're the ones you have to really put in the extra work for and the extra training for."

While Murray went into the match with an additional 50 hours of tennis in his legs over the course of the year, his match sharpness and additional confidence from winning tournaments saw him execute at the big moments. He never looked back after breaking the Djokovic serve to take a 5-3 first set lead, even if he said afterwards it was one of the poorer quality meetings between these two players in the series.

Read more: Andy Murray sitting pretty as undisputed No 1 after Game of Thrones with Novak Djokovic

"I slept well last night, but I didn't feel great this morning," he said. "Thankfully the first sort of seven games of the match, there was no long rallies really at all, which for us is strange. I don't think that was one of me and Novak's best matches. The end was exciting and dramatic. But, you know, there were mistakes from both of us. But maybe in the important moments today, I was just a little bit more solid, maybe had that extra little bit of confidence, which in the past when we played each other maybe he's had. Maybe that was a bit of the difference today rather than the rankings."