SIR Alex Ferguson and Sir Sean Connery famously gatecrashed Andy Murray's maiden Grand Slam win in New York in the fall of 2012 but they weren't the only celebrities strutting around the Arthur Ashe arena that fateful night. A certain Donald Trump was gazing down on the action from his corporate box like some latter day Roman emperor. Fast forward five years and Murray, the world's best tennis player and also a home owner in Miami, was waking up in the middle of the night on Oxshott, Surrey, and watching transfixed as Trump was being elected president of the United States of America.

"I didn’t stay up to watch it but I woke up at about 2am," said Murray, who has always taken an interest in politics. "Everyone was talking about it in the middle of the night. My wife [Kim] woke up and put the TV on which woke me up and I stayed up from about 2am to 5am to watch it."

If that is a snapshot of normality with the Murrays, another more important development this week - in the life of this family, if not exactly in a global context - was the news that little Sophia, the World No 1's eighth-month old daughter, had crawled for the first time. Andy knew about it because he watched a jpeg file of it on Friday morning, having missed the live event due to his practice schedule.

Such is life when you are the World's No 1 tennis player, but in general there is much to admire about the way the Scot has integrated fatherhood into his relentless pursuit of sporting excellence. As most young families will know, meticulous planning is key. As such, the Scot will base himself at home for the first time this week as he endeavours to win the ATP Tour finals at the o2 for the first time and keep hold of his hard-earned No 1 ranking for year end. Throw in the tennis season's only piece of downtime around Christmas and Sophia will get to see her daddy every day for the next month, not to mention jet-setting out to join him as he gets his 2017 campaign under way in Abu Dhabi and Doha at the turn of the year.

"She started crawling yesterday," said the 29-year-old. "I wasn’t there unfortunately. I was practising. There’s video of it and I saw it this morning for myself. It’s nice. Anyone that’s a parent will say that. Even though it’s baby steps, small steps, it’s nice to be around when that’s happening and that’s why this period of the year is great. I will get to see her every day for the next four and a half weeks before I go off to Miami. I will get to spend a bit of time with her over Christmas and she is coming at the beginning of the year to some of the tournaments in the Middle East."

Doting parents will do anything for their children but Murray accepts that little Sophia is also helping him. When family life is running smoothly, it can greatly assist a sportsperson; when things are off kilter, it can prove a drain on their resources. Some wondered whether the new arrival would destroy his focus but instead Murray admits that having responsibility for Sophia has allowed him to let go of wounding results more easily.

"The thing is, it has distracted me in a good way," said Murray. "All of my focus isn’t on tennis now, which is a positive. Maybe before, tennis was my life and now it isn’t. I still want to do well but it’s true that when I finished in Paris, I was really happy that I won but I wanted to go home and see my family and that’s more important now. Maybe my focus is a little bit different and I’m not dwelling on wins and losses as much. I feel a lot more level-headed through the year emotionally. I’m not as up and down."

The season-ending ATP Tour finals has become a staple of the tennis year but the usual mixture of tennis devotees and tourists on Christmas shopping breaks will notice quite a difference this year. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, year-end number ones for 11 of the last 15 years, are absent through injury. The former, who has dropped to World No 16, is nursing a long-term knee problem at the age of 35, while the Spaniard, who would have just scraped into this tournament by dint of his world ranking, is holed up in Mallorca with a wrist issue. Where once there was a fab four, some now see only a top two - Murray and Djokovic - vying for the soul of the sport but the Scot will keep his counsel on that until the new year.

"I think injuries have played a pretty big part in that," said the Scot. "When somebody is not playing for six months like Roger then they can’t maintain their ranking and they are not competing for the biggest events. Rafa, when he was starting to play better, he had this problem with a wrist issue and that has set him back a bit. Stan [Wawrinka] winning at the US Open against Novak in the final was a bit of a surprise, maybe. Next year will be interesting. That will be the time to sort of tell whether it’s done and that era is past."

Interesting is an understatement for a racy plotline at this year's ATP Tour finals which sees Murray and Djokovic battling it out to be top of the charts at Christmas time. For once, the Serbian, the year-end No 1 for the other four of the last five years, arrives as only the world's second best player, his 122-week hold on the top spot obliterated in Paris last week. His form has dipped markedly in the latter part of this year, but the equation for him to return to top spot - and limit Murray to a fortnight as top dog - remains distinctly do-able. He needs to win the title at an event where he hasn't lost since 2011, claiming two group wins in the process. He has located a soft section which includes a less-than-100% Milos Raonic, and two first time qualifiers in Gael Monfils and Dominic Thiem.

Andy Murray, meanwhile, finds himself in a group of death. First up is Marin Cilic, the man whose defeat of Djokovic in Paris handed him World No 1 status in the first place, then US Open winner Stan Wawrinka, and Kei Nishikori, who put an end to the Scot's own Flushing Meadows ambitions. The 29-year-old has never got beyond the semi-finals here, but the faster courts and some excellent preparation in Paris might just be his trump card.

The Scot has been love-bombed since reaching World No 1 and his confidence has never been higher. "I do know from being out and about that a lot of people have come up and congratulated me and that hasn’t necessarily always been the case or after big events," said Murray. "It has been nice. Even around here, the chefs and the security guards have been mentioning it to me."