The Murray brothers have had a year to remember.
Both Andy and Jamie secured the world number one rankings for singles and doubles with their showings at last week’s ATP World Tour finals, so we take a look at their remarkable rise to the top, throughout 2016.
There were mixed fortunes for the Murray brothers in Australia as Andy had the heartbreak of a fifth final loss in Melbourne while Jamie was celebrating his first men’s doubles Grand Slam title.
Jamie famously won the first senior Grand Slam title of the pair when taking the Wimbledon mixed double’s crown with Jelena Jankovic in 2007, but had watched from the sidelines as Andy picked up the US Open and Wimbledon singles trophies in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
However, after teaming up with Bruno Soares at the start of the year, the pair experienced instant success by beating Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek 2-6 6-4 7-5 in the final.
No such joy for Murray junior, though, as Andy came up against a Novak Djokovic in peak condition and was beaten 6-1 7-5 7-6 in the final.
Just as Jamie had won the first Grand Slam title, so he was the first brother to reach the top of the world rankings.
Jamie and Soares may have lost in the opening round of the Miami Open, but with Marcelo Melo losing in the second round, the Scot had done enough to move to the top of the individual men’s doubles rankings on April 4.
Not to be outdone by his older brother, Andy’s year really took off on the European clay courts in the spring.
After taking time out for the birth of his daughter, the 29-year-old’s results at Indian Wells and Miami left a lot to be desired, but he bounced back with the best clay season of his career.
Losing in the Monte-Carlo semi-final to Rafa Nadal was followed by a three-set defeat to Djokovic in the Madrid final.
And he finally made the breakthrough, winning his first clay court masters title, in Rome, when he beat his Serbian rival in straight sets.
A best-ever result in the French Open followed as he made the final for the first time, but Djokovic exacted revenge with a four-set victory to complete the career Grand Slam.
His brother, heading into the Roland Garros event as fourth seed with Soares, was left disappointed with a third-round loss to Leander Paes and Marcin Matkowski.
Wimbledon winner in 2013 and runner-up the year before, Andy lost to Grigor Dimitrov in the 2014 quarter-finals before going down to Roger Federer in last year’s semi-final.
But 2016 was a summer to remember. After winning a record fifth Queen’s Club title with a comeback victory over Canada’s Milos Raonic, the Scot went on to go unbeaten on grass in 2016 by taking a second Wimbledon crown.
With Djokovic making a surprise early exit, Andy’s path to the trophy was clear and he once again defeated Raonic – this time in straight sets – to reign supreme in SW19 for a second time.
Jamie could not match his brother’s success, though, losing in the quarter-finals to Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Four years on from his first triumph at Wimbledon – the club, not the championships – Andy returned to the Olympic arena with gold in his sights once more.
The brothers competed together, hoping to replicate their Davis Cup success, but it was not to be as they lost in the first round to home favourites Thomaz Bellucci and Andre Sa.
And while Jamie would also lost in the first round of the mixed doubles, with Johanna Konta, and Andy, playing with Heather Watson, would go out in the second round to Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna, there would still be a Murray on the top step of the podium in 2016.
It wasn’t without incident though, but after wobbles against Italy’s Fabio Fognini and America’s Steve Johnson, Andy would go on to win an epic final in four sets against London 2012 bronze medallist Juan Martin del Potro.
Andy went straight from Rio to Cincinnati and extended his winning streak to 22 matches – a career high – before eventually losing in the final to Raonic.
And another loss came in the US Open quarter-finals as Japan’s Kei Nishikori got the better of him in a gruelling five-setter.
However, where Andy fell, Jamie prevailed.
Jamie and Soares won their second Grand Slam of the season with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, having already toppled number one seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, of France, in the semi-final.
Having left the French Open 8,035 points behind Djokovic in the rankings, Murray had closed the gap to 4,695 by the time the China Open came around in October.
And Andy’s first ATP Tour action since the US Open started the run that would eventually see him crowned world number one in November.
A straight sets win over Dimitrov in the Beijing final was followed by him dispatching Roberto Bautista-Agut to win the Shanghai Masters.
The winning run stretched to 15 by beating Jo Wilfried-Tsonga in the Vienna Open final, and Raonic’s withdrawal from the Paris Masters gave Murray the win he needed to topple Djokovic atop the rankings.
The Scot put the gloss on that week by taking his first Paris Masters title with a win over John Isner, and he headed to London’s O2 Arena on the back of a 20-match unbeaten run.
Murray junior arrived in London as the best player in the world, but needing to better Djokovic’s result in the capital to secure the year-end top spot.
Whereas Murray senior and Soares began their campaign needing top seeds Herbert and Mahut to stumble for them to top the rankings.
And stumble they did, losing all three group games to mean the Scottish-Brazilian pairing’s semi-final appearance was enough to guarantee themselves the number one spot.
Anything Jamie could do, Andy could do too, with the three-time Grand Slam Champion winning all his group matches before going the distance with old foe Raonic in the semi-final, eventually prevailing 11-9 in the third-set tiebreak.
The final was less dramatic, though, as Murray sailed past Djokovic 6-3 6-4 to take his first ever ATP World Tour Finals title, the 1,500 points that come with an unbeaten tournament, and the year-end number one ranking to boot.
Sportsbeat 2016