People who enjoy tennis – regardless of whether they bet on tennis or not – must be pleased by the news that Scottish player Andy Murray has ousted Serb Novak Djokovic from the top spot of the ATP rankings. Nothing against Djokovic, but the man had been up there since July 2014. It was high time that he quit bogarting that spot. Murray is the first British man to reach world No. 1 since the rankings were introduced in 1973, which he accomplished by defeating John Isner in the finals of the 2016 Paris Masters after Djokovic was eliminated by Marin Cilic.
Rivalry
Murray and Djokovic have had a storied rivalry. As a matter of fact, fans who bet on tennis might even say that Murray is the Batman to Djokovic’s, well, Djoker. They could also say that the two have been competing since they were in their respective mothers’ wombs (Murray beat Djokovic by being delivered into this world a week earlier in May 1987). All of this might not have been at all, though. Did you know that at the age of 15, Murray was asked to train with Rangers Football Club at their School of Excellence – which I’m just going to go ahead and assume is a School of Witchcraft and Wizardry like Hogwarts – but turned them down to focus on tennis?
Good Call
It was a good call, because even though Djokovic stacks more paper – actually, Djokovic stacks more paper than anyone ever in the history of tennis – Murray has nonetheless earned a cool $53,324,019, which allows him to do things like buy a Victorian mansion and turn it into a 15-room five-star hotel. Now can we please have Andy Murray retire from tennis and personally manage said hotel so we can all enjoy some Faulty Towers-style hijinks?
Surprise
Seriously though, this has taken everyone by surprise, including Murray himself. Don’t believe me? His own profile on his own official website still describes him as “currently ranked number 2 in the world” as I’m writing this. Somewhere, some poor webmaster has just not been able to get recover from the joyful news for long enough to update this particular detail. Also, were you aware that Andy will be guest-editing the Huffington Post through which he will help build modern men? Then he will presumably move on to try to understand the New York Times’ effect on man.
Anything else?
What else can be said about Mr. Andy Murray? A lot more, probably. But people who bet on tennis are conceivably only interested in the wagering side of things. And in that spirit, Murray will open his ATP World Tour Finals campaign against Cilic on 14th November, and will then take on Stan Wawrinkav and Kei Nishikori in the round-robin stage at London’s O2 Arena. One could safely believe that Murray will enter as the tennis betting favorite, being the top dog and all. The Scotsman hopes to win the season-ending tournament for the first time and remain at the top of the rankings for the rest of 2016.