NOVAK Djokovic lavished praise on Andy Murray and his wife Kim after the Scot sealed the year-end No 1 ranking for the first time. The Serb, who has hinted about certain private difficulties in his relationship with his wife Jelena during the course of the season, said that the balance his great Scottish rival had found with his wife and young daughter Sophia was one of the factors which had seen him clinch the Christmas No 1 spot with his first-ever ATP World Tour Finals title. Djokovic ends the campaign with two Grand Slams to his name but wasn't the same player in the latter part of the season. He said he would give it some time before turning his attention to the struggle to overhaul the Scot at the summit of the sport again in 2017.

"We should all let Andy enjoy this a little bit," he said. "He deserves to be in the moment and to really take everything in what he achieved. His team as well, and his wife. She has to get some credit, guys. She gave birth this year. He has travelled all over the place. I know how it is with my wife Jelena, what she had to go through as a mother back home with a little baby. So to Kim, well done. She's maybe made even a bigger effort than Andy."

Djokovic, who had been year-end No 1 five times out of the last six seasons, was on the wrong end of only his second loss in 24 matches at this venue. After the French Open in 2016 he had all four Grand Slam titles in his possession but in the main he put his season down as a learning curve.

"There are many highlights, many things to reflect on and be proud of. The French Open is definitely on top of that list. I've had better seasons results-wise. But I mean, nothing is eternal. I know there are other players coming up, present players that are getting stronger. All in all, it's one great lesson that you have to accept and move on hopefully as a wiser person and as a better player."

A refreshingly honest Djokovic said on court that Murray deserved to be No 1 and admonished himself for not performing better in some late season tournaments. "Well, the last five, six months have not been ideal," he said. "Surely I could have maybe done slightly better in some tournaments. Nevertheless, I played finals of US Open, and finals here. It's still pretty good playing finals. I've just been through so much emotions in the first six months with Roland Garros in place. I needed some time to really take it all in, digest it. But I didn't have that time. I had to a few weeks later be on the court right away. I guess that all had its toll. Right now I'm actually looking forward to have a month and a half with no tournaments. That's something that is a luxury in the men's tennis.

"Maybe in the decisive moments today I lacked that match play, match situations that I didn't have too much in the last couple of months," he added. "On the other side, Andy played a lot of matches, especially in the last couple of months, and he won them all. He's on a streak. Even though he has had very long matches, especially the one yesterday, people were thinking maybe he's going to be slightly tired, but he didn't seem so. More than anything, he felt comfortable in the rallies and exactly knew what to do. I hesitated, and it didn't work."

For all the occasional feistiness of the rivalry between these two, Murray said the pair are closer friends off the court than they may seem. "When me and Novak speak with each other, we don't talk about tennis, rankings, the matches we play against each other," the Scot said. "Maybe when we finish playing, that might change. But we talk about each other's families, children and stuff. We chatted at length this year quite a lot because obviously I became a father the first time. We spoke about the difficulty in keeping the sort of balance in your life with the family and the travelling and the work and everything.

"I think both of us have been with our now wives a long time, pretty much since we were like 18, 19 years old," he added. "We met our wives together at that age, as well. We've known each other a very long time. Regardless of what some of you may think, we have a good relationship. It's not always easy when you're playing on court in the biggest matches with a lot at stake, but we've always got on well with each other, each other's teams and families."