A LOOK BACK

Uruguay Open (Montevideo, Uruguay): Second seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina cruised to the title with a convincing 6-4, 6-1 win over sixth seed Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil. He is now on a 10-match win streak in Challengers, having prevailed also defeated Dutra Silva in September’s championship match in Barranquila, Colombia.

Argentina has won 20 titles in 2016, tying France in 2005 and their own personal best in 2007 for most Challenger events won by any country. Ten different Argentine players won title this year.

Dutra Silva has had an outstanding finish to the season in South American Challengers. He’s posted a 26-9 record since September, including runner-up finishes in Montevideo and Barranquilla, Colombia, as well as semi-final showings in four other events.

JSM Challenger Of Champaign-Urbana (Champaign, Illinois): Second seed Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland successfully defended his title with a 7-5, 6-3 win over sixth seed Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium. This is his second Challenger title of the year, having prevailed in September in Shanghai. Laaksonen is the fourth player to successfully defend a Challenger title this year, joining #NextGen star Hyeon Chung (Kaohsiung), Yen-Hsun Lu (Ningbo) and Facundo Bagnis (Santiago). Last year, he rallied from a set down to defeat Taylor Fritz in the final.

Bemelmans has come alive in the final part of the season. He finished runner-up earlier this month in Charlottesville, Virginia, and has gone 10-3 in his past three Challenger events.

Dunlop Srixon World Challenge (Toyota, Japan): Fifth seed James Duckworth of Australia continued his outstanding form by defeating seventh seed Tatsuma Ito of Japan, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1. Duckworth has vaulted more than 100 spots in the Emirates ATP Rankings in his return from an elbow injury in early May, rising to No. 104. He caps his 2016 campaign in dominant fashion, posting a 14-1 record in his final three events, including a title run on home soil Canberra earlier this month.

Internazionali Citta Di Brescia (Brescia, Italy): In a thrilling final, Luca Vanni of Italy scored a 6-7(5), 6-4 7-6(8) win over lucky loser Laurynas Grigelis of Lithuania. The 31-year-old also prevailed this July at the Challenger in Segovia, Spain.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Laaksonen: “I didn’t feel that good in the first three matches, but I kept fighting and started to feel really great on the court by the end. I didn’t give away too any free points in the final and showed that I can play at a high level. “

A LOOK AHEAD

The 2016 ATP Challenger Tour season concludes this week with three events. Two months after holding a successful $50,000 event, Ohio State University in the city of Columbus will now host a $75,000 tournament. American #NextGen star Taylor Fritz is the top seed and has a blockbuster first-round clash against Ohio State star Mikael Torpegaard of Denmark, who won the last Challenger in Columbus. American Rajeev Ram, a doubles runner-up at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, is the second seed. Laaksonen looks for another title as the third seed and American #NextGen star Stefan Kozlov is the fourth seed.

The $50,000 event in Andria, Italy, returns for the fourth straight year. Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine is the top seed and Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland is the second seed. Vanni looks for another big run as the fourth seed and Grigelis looks to continue his top form as well. Former Top 5 player Tommy Robredo of Spain and World No. 1 junior Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece also compete this week.

Astana, Kazakhstan plays home to a new indoor hard court event with $50,000 in prize money. #NextGen star Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan is the top seed and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan is the second seed. Local favourites Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Andrey Golubev are the fourth and eighth seeds, respectively. 

View Draws & Watch Free Live Streams

ATP CHALLENGER TOUR ON TWITTER: New in 2016, the ATP Challenger Tour has launched a dedicated Twitter account for the latest news and information about players and events. Follow @ATPChallengerTour at twitter.com/ATPChallengerTour.

Having worked relentlessly to reach the summit of the tennis world, Andy Murray is determined to hang on to No. 1 spot in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

The 29-year-old dismantled Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-4 in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals showdown to end the season on a 24-match winning streak to finish 2016 as the year-end No. 1 for the first time in his career. The Scot has won an ATP World Tour leading nine titles this campaign, with a career-best 78-9 match record, but is under no illusions over the size of the task to remain No. 1

“I would like to try and stay there, obviously. It’s taken a huge effort the last five, six months to get there,” said Murray at The O2 arena after Sunday’s triumph. “I would obviously like to stay there. I’m aware that’s going to be extremely difficult because I had a great year this year. I only managed to do it by one match. To repeat that again next year is going to be extremely difficult.

Murray is also aware that the Next Gen are going to be forcing their way into contention for the top honours. “I want to try and achieve as much as I can these next few years because I’m not going to be around forever,” reflected Murray, who also cinched a second Wimbledon title and Olympic gold medal in 2016. “I’m not going to be able to play at this level and play this many matches into my mid-30s. The young guys are going to keep improving and getting better.”

An enthralled crowd at The O2 arena witnessed Murray halt Djokovic’s four-year reign at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on Sunday. The Serbian possessed a 24-10 Fedex Head2Head over Murray before the London finale, which made the victory even more special.

“He’s been 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. We played in loads of Masters 1000 Series finals, as well, and are one week apart in age,” said Murray. “It obviously a very important win for me. It was just a huge match to finish the year, to try and finish No. 1. 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.”

Having prevailed in the record longest Barclays ATP World Tour Finals match on Saturday, in his pulsating 3hr38minutes semi-final victory over Milos Raonic, Murray admitted he felt “sluggish” in practice just before taking on Djokovic.

“I was lucky I got it finished in two sets, I didn’t feel great this morning. Also I don’t think that was one of Novak’s best matches. I think we have played better matches together,” added the Scot. “The end of the match was exciting and dramatic. There were mistakes from both of us but I think tactically I played a good match.

“Yeah, it was obviously a good performance. You never beat a player as good as Novak if you don’t play well.”

Having captured his maiden Barclays ATP World Tour Finals trophy, Murray will head out on Monday night to celebrate with family and friends to toast a landmark victory.

“I’m happy for my team, as well, because they put a lot of work into getting me ready for these matches. I’ve lost a lot of them over the years,” said Murray. “It’s nice and I’m happy for them that I managed to win a big one like this. Mentally that will give me a boost going into next year, as well.”

In archetypical Murray fashion, he is already preparing to put in the hard graft to compete in 2017, and he’ll fly to Miami in a fortnight to begin winter training. “It’s going to be hard, but I’ll try to keep going.”

It’s a rare sight when someone other than Novak Djokovic is posing with ATP Executive Chairman & President Chris Kermode and the year-end No. 1 trophy. That honour has fallen upon the Serbian in four of the previous five years at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, but on Sunday it was Andy Murray dramatically wrestling the mantle.

Djokovic, who saw his four-year reign at The O2 also come to an end, was on the losing end of a 6-3, 6-4 result as the spotlight abruptly shifted to his Scottish counterpart. But despite the defeat, the World No. 2 reflected on what has been a sparkling 2016 campaign. Standards will always be high for Djokovic and putting losses into perspective is key for the Serbian.

“We’re sitting now talking post-match, obviously analysing the whole year,” said Djokovic. “There are many highlights, many things to reflect on and be proud of… Every year is an evolution for me. It’s a different year. It’s hard to expect to repeat all these things forever.

“Nothing is eternal. I know there are other players coming up and present players that are getting stronger. I’m trying to do the same thing. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. 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.”

Djokovic concludes a season as No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time since 2013, when he finished behind Rafael Nadal. He was bidding to join Roger Federer as the only six-time winners at the season finale, failing to lift the trophy for the first time since 2011.

The Belgrade native is confident that the bump in the road will smooth over, with much-needed rest and recovery following a long season. A 65-9 win-loss mark and seven titles, including four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events (Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Toronto) and Grand Slam crowns at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, is a season to be proud of.

“Right now the goal is just to rest a little bit,” Djokovic added. “It’s been a long season, a very nice year, a lot to reflect on and a lot to take in. But it’s time to leave the racquet aside for a little bit, just recover, then I’ll start thinking about next season.

“The last five, six months have not been ideal. Surely, I could have maybe done slightly better in some tournaments. Nevertheless, I played the final of the US Open and final here. It’s still pretty good playing finals. Even though I set a high standard for myself, especially the last couple years, I’m very grateful to have had the career that I’ve had.

“But, sometimes it’s just normal to experience these kind of things and to not have the half seasons as well as you want them to be, as well as they’ve been in the last three, four years. That’s all.”

Andy Murray broke the unbreakable.

Murray defeated Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-4 in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals title match to become the year-end No. 1 player in the Emirates ATP Rankings by attacking the Serbian’s normally impenetrable backhand.

All discussions after the semi-finals focused on possible exhaustion for the Brit after his marathon victory over Milos Raonic and Djokovic’s impressive demolition of Kei Nishikori. It took just a handful of minutes on Sunday night to clearly see both of those results would have no bearing on the final.

This match was Murray’s from the beginning. He looked sharper, hungrier, and more willing to reach out and grab his destiny rather than hope it was going to be given to him. “There was no serious chance for me to win today’s match,” Djokovic said post-match. “From the very beginning we could see that. He was just better all in all.”

With Murray returning leading 4-3 on serve in the opening set, Djokovic committed a routine backhand error at 15/0 that seemed very uncharacteristic from the former World No. 1. The Serbian was off balance, falling backwards, which immediately started the alarm bells ringing, signaling a critical break of serve was imminent. At 15/15, Djokovic started the rally with two forehands, but Murray then made him hit three consecutive backhands, with Djokovic sailing the third one long.

At deuce, Djokovic put a neutral rally backhand groundstroke into the net. On break point, Murray double downed on attacking the vulnerable Djokovic wing, making the Serbian hit eight consecutive backhands, with the last one finding its way into the net as Murray approached with an aggressive forehand. Break. The Scottish horse was bolting.

With Murray serving at 5-3, 40/15 in the opening set, it was once again a Djokovic backhand that found the net to end the point, and end the set. Overall for the match, Djokovic’s backhand contributed just three winners, while committing 17 unforced errors. Murray hit 54 per cent of his shots to Djokovic’s backhand side, relentlessly trying to break it down.

Murray’s quality groundstrokes also forced Djokovic more onto his back foot in the final than the World No. 2 is used to. In round-robin play, and in the semi-final against Nishikori, Djokovic made contact with 78 per cent of his backhands behind the baseline. That margin slightly deteriorated against Murray, with 82 per cent of Djokovic’s backhands hit from behind the baseline.

“I just played very poorly, made a lot of unforced errors from the backhand side,” Djokovic said post-match. “It just wasn’t my day.”

The average rally length in Murray’s semi-final victory against Raonic was just five shots, but that was extended to seven shots against Djokovic in the final. Unfortunately for the Belgrade native, those longer rallies all too often ended in a backhand error.

Leading into the final, Djokovic averaged just seven backhand unforced errors in each match, but that skyrocketed to 17 against Murray. Once Murray found a crack in Djokovic’s armour, he turned it into a crevice.

Overall in the final, Murray played better than we have seen this week, and Djokovic played worse. You have got to give credit to the Brit for both ends of that equation.