Andy Murray proud to reach number one in era of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic

The Briton took the top spot after Novak Djokovic lost to Marin Cilic in the quarter-finals on Friday, before his Canadian opponent pulled out of their semi-final match with a calf problem.

Murray, who will take on American John Isner in Sunday's final, went out to practice on court in front of the crowd anyway and gave an interview afterwards where he emphasised how tough reaching the pinnacle of the sport had been in the era or Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Djokovic.

"It's been such a difficult thing to do during my career because of how good the guys around me have been, the guys ahead of me," said Murray.

"It has been really, really hard to do it, been really difficult. Obviously they are three of the best players that have ever played the game."

Murray also admitted it was not his ideal way to rise to the top of the rankings. "I felt like getting to No. 1, it wasn't about this week and it wasn't just about last week or a few days here and there," he added. "It's about 12 months of work to get there. It felt obviously a little bit strange when it happened.

"But everyone was talking about this week, Oh, if you win or do this or whatever.

"Obviously, it's unfortunate the way that it happened today. I would have liked to have done it on the court, but it's been many years of work to get here."

Murray was far behind Djokovic after the Serb beat him in the French Open final in June, but an impressive series of victories leading to titles in Wimbledon, Beijing, the Shanghai Masters and Vienna, combined with his rival's loss in the Paris quarter-finals, propelled him to the top.

"I was so far behind in terms of points, and the amount of matches it would take me to win. I never expected to do what I had done after the French Open, so I was really down after I lost that match," Murray said.

"But things can turn around quick in sport, and it's just a strange sport. You had Novak losing yesterday to a guy against whom he'd won 14 times in a row. Stuff can turn around quick, and the last few months have been really good."

Murray will now set his sights on the ATP World Tour finals in London from November 13-20.

"Now that I have done it, I need to obviously sort of reset my goals and find the next thing to motivate me and try and push me to keep getting better," he said.

Meanwhile, Raonic explained in a hastily convened press conference why he had to pull out following his 6-2 7-6(4) win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last eight.

"Yesterday at I believe 4-2 in the first set I began feeling something in my leg - I didn't think too much of it at the time," he said.

"This morning I had trouble waking up and getting out of bed.

"I had some tests and an MRI and they found I have a grade one tear in the right quad so I'm unfortunately not able to compete."