At the end of last year there were voices casting doubt on Andy Murray's decision to surround himself with a team of coaches and fitness specialists after dispensing with the services of Brad Gilbert. "You need one person in charge, who should be the coach," Michael Stich, the former Wimbledon champion, said. "As someone who still needs to develop both his game and as a person, I think it might not be helpful for Andy to have a big entourage."

The season ended as it began for Novak Djokovic. There have been times in the last six months when the 21-year-old Serb has given a poor imitation of the man who took the Australian Open by storm in January, but in winning the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup here today [Sunday] he looked every inch the young tyro who broke the hold Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal had held on the sport in the previous two years.

Roger Federer had it right. After losing a draining three-hour thriller to Andy Murray in the Tennis Masters Cup here on Friday night, the former world No 1 was asked whether he would have had enough energy to play Nikolay Davydenko in the semi-finals the following day. “To be honest I’m pretty happy I don’t have a match tomorrow,” Federer said. “Playing Davydenko wouldn’t have been a whole lot of fun. Against him, you have to defend and run and stuff.”

It remains to be seen whether he has damaged his chances of claiming the biggest prize of his career, but Andy Murray could take pride in winning one of the matches of the season last night. The 21-year-old Scot had already qualified for the semi-finals of the Tennis Masters Cup but still gave his all in a three-hour thriller to beat Roger Federer 4-6, 7-6, 7-5.

Andy Murray eliminated defending champion Roger Federer from the season-ending Masters Cup today after recording a thrilling 4-6 7-6 (7/3) 7-5 win in Shanghai.