The second half of the year holds nothing good for Andy Murray from a purely sporting point of view. Due to his protracted hip injury, the Scotsman will be out of the top 10 for the first time in three years.
The Scot will have to get used to it. A year ago, Murray finished the calendar year as the world’s number one; twelve months later, he will not even be in the top 10.
Due to the forced break, which caused him protracted hip problems, the 30-year-old loses many points from the previous year. Murray triumphed in his homeland in Wimbledon in the second half of the season in 2016, and there are also victories in Beijing, Shanghai, Vienna, Paris and the ATP World Tour Finals. When the reigning Olympic champion in Wimbledon dropped out of the quarter-finals in the summer and finished his season as good as he could, Murray knew that he would fall in the ranking. At the moment the Briton is still in third position behind Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Murray loses 1000 points by not competing in the Masters-1000 tournament in Paris-Bércy, making him the first time since October 2014 when he was ranked eleventh in the world ranking, he has dropped out of the top 10. With the additional points deducted for the other tournaments, Murray will be ranked 15th in the region next Monday. This also means that “Sir Andy” will meet top seeded players at the tournaments in early 2018. Due to the poorer ranking, he is threatened with hard games in early rounds at the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open. A simple start to the season will not be guaranteed.
The Briton cleared the place in the sun on 21. August 2017 and handed over the sceptre to Nadal, who is already number one in the world at the end of the year.
Murray’s comeback is scheduled for the tournament in Brisbane in early January 2018. Only recently, the three-time Grand Slam Champion announced that he will start his season in Australia in the next three years. Whether this will be in Brisbane in 2019 and? 20 is still unclear. The plans for a revival of the World Team Cup are currently under discussion and would fall within this period. There, too, there will be world ranking points and plenty of prize money to win.
The men’s world ranking list