Pressure Mounting on Andy Murray's Quest to Win 2016 World Tour Finals

Andy Murray has never traveled the easy road in his resilient career, and the 2016 ATP World Tour Finals is shaping up as the greatest fight of his professional life as the world’s No. 1 player. Of course, the Scot has not completed two weeks at the top, even if this is a longer tenure than Patrick Rafter’s one-week fling in late summer 1999.

Here is Murray, after a decade chasing three contemporary legends, scrapping for success and enduring hard knocks. He looks like he’s survived ancient clan wars and exhausting journeys. He’s scruffy and he scowls, but his fierce eyes fire back at opponents like a two-handed scorcher down the line. Time and again, he runs down would-be winners with attrition as much as with creative turnabouts.

Just once, it should be easy for Andy. Couldn’t the tennis gods part aside his competitors and let him roar through the weekend with a dominating statement to back his No. 1 ascension? Shouldn’t the Scottish warrior be allowed to claim the year-end spoils and bask in the brief ATP offseason before the Australian summer heats up the bottom of the planet?

Not a chance. It would be easier for Murray to blot out the sun than turn aside his assailants. As if by fate, Murray will need to protect his brand-new ranking by beating back the next three ranked challengers in ascending order.

He will need to survive baseline bashing from Stan Wawrinka (Mission completed), return missiles slammed by Milos Raonic in the semifinals and face up to the likely prospect of defeating deposed Novak Djokovic in the final.

There’s pressure, and there’s the tennis reality of being Andy Murray.

Just be Perfect, Andy

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Try to understand just how remarkable and resilient Murray has been since losing the French Open to Djokovic five months ago. Even capturing the Wimbledon crown, Olympics gold medal and Masters titles at Shanghai and Paris, Murray has navigated a red-eye schedule that has needed every win to make up for key losses at Cincinnati and the U.S. Open quarterfinals.

There’s no denying that he caught a break when King Novak, coming off the most dominant period in Open-era tennis, succumbed to injuries, exhaustion and conflicting motivations. But credit Murray for seeing the sliver of light through a window that had been shut for over two years. He threw all his chips on the table, doubled his bets and climbed the mountain as the sun swiftly set in Paris.

Murray’s next task was to push aside the group of death, and a chance to avenge his losses to Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori. He survived a marathon reunion with Nishikori, fighting back from a first-set tiebreaker loss and a late second-set deadlock.

Meanwhile, Djokovic swept his group and put the pressure on Murray to keep pace despite his own struggles to find his No. 1 form. His latest was a clinical crushing of alternate David Goffin. The Serb is flexing his muscles in the mirror and getting an extra day of rest while Murray warred on with Friday's Wawrinka match.

The British media has detailed every Murray point and post-match possibility with bated breath, charging him to keep up his winning streak and foreshadowing his obituary at the slightest stumble. With unabashed bias, Sky Sports commentators frame every narrative with what “Andy” needs to do. It’s a tenuous and all-encompassing tension like a thick London fog.

Win the WTF and keep the No. 1 ranking. Lose and it all could slip away.

Winter of Triumph or Discontent

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Murray has fought through epic victories and scathing defeats. He broke the Wimbledon curse in 2013, came back from back surgery, melted down in the 2015 Australian Open final, emerged into a Davis Cup legend and has been thrashed in his rivalry with Djokovic. Through it all, he calmly answers the media frenzy, embracing, even inviting, the challenges ahead.

“I think for the tournament and stuff, for everyone interested in tennis, that (Defeating Djokovic in the final) would probably be the perfect way to finish the year,” Murray said in the Australian.

Just how much will the Scot’s 29-year-old body hold up under the strain of fatiguing matches and the newfound pressures of the No. 1 ranking will be the weekend’s analysis. It's importance will bleed into early 2017 and possibly determine his seeding at the Australian Open.

It could shape his ongoing rivalry with Djokovic, control of the No. 1 ranking and the intermediate future of tennis.

The pressures to be the best demand nothing less than absolute winning, composure under fire and the drive to outlast modern legends. By now, Murray is just going about the pressures with business as usual.

But the semifinals are looming and there's only recovery. No time to rest.