Britain’s Andy Murray celebrated his rise to world number one by beating American John Isner 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 to win his first Paris Masters title.
The victory brought Murray his sixth ATP title of a memorable 2016.
The Scot, 29, also added his second Olympic and Wimbledon titles on his way to the top of the rankings.
Today he will be officially confirmed as Britain’s first singles number one since computerised rankings were introduced in 1973.
Murray’s ascent was confirmed by Milos Raonic’s withdrawal from Saturday’s semi-final with a leg injury, but the hype around his accomplishment did nothing to knock his concentration.
He now heads to the season-ending World Tour Finals as top seed for the first time – but if previous number one Novak Djokovic wins every match at the Finals he will reclaim the top ranking he held for 122 weeks.
The draw for that competition takes place today at 15:00 GMT.
After double-faulting on the first point of the first game, Murray soon clicked into gear, breaking for a 4-2 lead, and showing watertight defence to close the door on Isner when the American created two break points of his own in the next game.
Murray managed only six points on his opponent’s serve in the set, but that was enough to take it in 35 minutes.
The unseeded Isner continued to put pressure on Murray in the second, showing an increasing deftness at the net to take the second set to a tie-break.
And the 6ft 8in 31-year-old had too much for the Scot in the decider, serving imperiously to take the breaker 7-4.
Twice in Isner’s first two service games of the third set Murray saw break points snatched away by his opponent’s huge serve.
But Murray was not be denied, and he finally forced a break at 5-4, firing in a rapid backhand that Isner could only dig into the net, to take the third set and the match.
