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‘Murray is Britain’s greatest’
- Updated: November 21, 2016
Andy Murray is now Britain’s greatest ever sportsman after he won the ATP World Tour Finals to end the year as world No 1, according to Mark Petchey.
The Scot’s former coach told Sky Sports News HQ recently that if Murray could overhaul long-time rival Novak Djokovic at the top of the rankings then he should be recognised as Great Britain’s ultimate sportsman.
Murray guaranteed that he would hold on to his recently acquired No 1 spot going into the end of the season on Sunday as he beat Djokovic in straight sets to claim his first World Tour Finals title and Petchey stands by his earlier assessment.
“It’s probably going to be a good pub chat, a lot of people are going to have different views on who should be and who shouldn’t be,” he told Sky Sports News HQ. “Every day I walk past Daley Thompson’s gym – there will be a lot of people who think he was one of the greatest sports people.
“I just think for Andy in terms of the fact that his opponents can impact his performance, the things he has to do in terms of overcoming them tactically, you saw it this week the different styles of players, the different surfaces he has to play on, criss-crossing the globe the way he does.
“For me he is [Britain’s greatest ever sportsman] but there will be others that definitely disagree.”
Murray won his second Wimbledon title this year and defended his Olympic gold medal, but in order to maintain his new ranking he had to better Djokovic’s tournament in London, which meant he could not afford to slip up.
“There was no room for error. He was one point away from not making it. Milos [Raonic] takes the match point in …
