It is nearly 10 months since Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic squared up to contest the first big title of the season, in the considerably warmer surroundings of Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. Then, as in London on Sunday night – with icy midwinter not far away and the season done - Murray reached another final after a draining semi-final against Milos Raonic. This time he won. This time he was crowned King of Tennis. And now he intends to stay there for as long as he can.

A couple of hours after beating Djokovic as emphatically as he has managed in a while, 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and 43 minutes to win his first ATP World Tour Finals and keep the world No1 ranking he wrenched from the Serb’s shaky grasp a fortnight ago in Paris, Murray was as humble and candid as ever.

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“It was obviously a good performance,” he agreed. “You never beat a player as good as Novak if you don’t play well. I’m not suggesting I played a bad match. I just think the two of us have played better matches than that one.”

There have been victory speeches in other theatres recently that have not been in shouting distance of that sort of dignity. But others were keen to sing his praises.

As the former British No1 Greg Rusedski said: “What a moment for Andy Murray, probably our greatest every sportsman, at least in my life time. He must have been hurting from first ball to last.”

It was his eighth title of the year, his fifth in a row, his 24th match victory on the spin. That pretty much defines the overworked concept of momentum.

Now he prepares for his return to Melbourne the hunted rather than the hunter. It does not appear to bother him. He knows he needed to win before the exertions of spending nearly 10 hours on court in four matches the past week caught up with him – especially as Djokovic had taken only six hours and 33 minutes to reach a final in which he hoped he might win back his crown.

Some carped that Murray had reached the summit of his sport just as Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal faded – which somewhat missed the point about staying the distance over 12 months. Murray was happy to seal the deal against the rival who had won 24 of their 34 matches and ruled the tennis jungle for 122 weeks in a row.

“It was obviously a big, big match against someone who I’ve played so many big matches against, my main rival really throughout my career. We played in all of the slam finals, Olympics, here now and a match to finish the year No1. We played in loads of Masters Series finals, as well, and are one week apart in age. It was just a huge match to finish the year.”

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Djokovic was deflated but big enough to take defeat like a champion. And he surprised some with a mention for Murray’s wife, Kim.

“We should all let Andy enjoy this a little bit,” he said. “Don’t ask him questions about next season. He deserves to be in the moment and to take in what he achieved. His team as well – and his wife. She has to get some credit, guys. She gave birth this year. He has travelled all over the place. I know how it is with my wife, Jelena, what she had to go through as a mother back home with a little baby. So, Kim, well done. She’s maybe made even a bigger effort than Andy.”

Murray observed later: “When me and Novak speak with each other, we don’t talk about tennis, rankings, the matches we play against each other. Maybe when we finish playing, that might change. But we talk about each other’s families, children and stuff. We chatted at length this year quite a lot because obviously I became a father the first time. We spoke about the difficulty in keeping the sort of balance in your life with the family and the travelling and the work and everything.

“Both of us have been with our wives a long time, pretty much since we were like 18, 19 years old. We met each other’s wives together at that age, as well. We’ve known each other a very long time. Regardless of what some of you may think, we have a good relationship. It’s not always easy when you’re playing on court in the biggest matches with a lot at stake, but we’ve always got on well with each other, each other’s teams and families.”