After all the battles and hard graft chasing the world number one spot, Briton Andy Murray arrived there without hitting a ball yesterday as Milos Raonic pulled out of their Paris Masters semi-final with a leg injury.

The triple grand slam winner, who will take over from Serb Novak Djokovic at the top when the rankings are updated tomorrow, still went out on centre court for a practice session in front of a bemused crowd.

“I never thought I’d be No.1 in the world and never, never imagined that was something that was going to happen,” Murray told a news conference.

Fourth seeded Canadian Raonic explained his injury.

“Yesterday, at I believe 4-2 in the first set, I started feeling some pain in my leg,” the fourth-seeded Raonic told a news conference, referring to his quarter-final match with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

“I didn’t think too much of it at that point. I had an MRI half an hour ago... they found that I have a tear in the right quadriceps.”

Murray, who was guaranteed to climb from second to first in the rankings if he reached the final, is the first Briton to get to no.1.

At 29 years and 174 days, he will be the oldest player to reach the summit for the first time since John Newcombe in 1974.

Djokovic, the number one since July 2014, was knocked out in the quarter-finals by ninth seed Marin Cilic on Friday.

The Croat was then beaten 6-4 6-3 in the semi-finals yesterday by American powerhouse John Isner.

Raonic is now doubtful for the ATP World Tour Finals to be held in London from Nov. 13-20.