ANDY Murray said last night that he was preparing his body for one last push to protect his World No 1 ranking from the clutches of Novak Djokovic. The showpiece final which the sport has been craving will come to pass this evening when the Scot and the Serbian face off in front of a sell-out 17,000 crowd at the o2 arena with the top spot in the rankings up for grabs for the first time ever in this event. While Murray was forced to subject his weary body through 3 hours and 38 minutes, the longest three-set match in the history of this event, during his dramatic 5-7, 7-6 (5),7-6 (9) win against Milos Raonic, an eager Djokovic made light work of Kei Nishikori of Japan by a 6-1, 6-1 scoreline in just over an hour.
A Djokovic victory will see him limit the Scot's hold on top spot to a fortnight and see him crowned as year-end World No 1 for the fifth time in six years instead, but Murray is not prepared to surrender his place at the summit of the sport without a fight. This will be the first meeting of the two players since the French Open final, with Djokovic holding a 24-10 head-to-head advantage. It will be their 18th final, with Murray having won seven.
"I don't know how I'll feel," said Murray, who stayed in a London hotel last night rather than travelling back to the family home in Surrey. "I'm obviously tired just now because it was a really hard match. But obviously tomorrow is the last day for a while, I get a break after that so I'll just give my best of what I've got tomorrow. Hopefully it's enough."
"We all know there is a lot on the line," said Djokovic. "You cannot take anything away from what Andy did in the last four, five months. Yes, we haven't played against each other, but his level was phenomenal. He's No. 1 of the world, and deservedly so. He's had 20-plus matches won. He got himself out of trouble today because of that confidence. Even though he has had a couple of very long matches in the last couple days, I doubt that he's going to feel tired."
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