Andy Murray will eventually get to the top of the rankings, says Sky Sports' Barry Cowan

It would be "unfair" on Andy Murray if he ended his career without being a world number one, says Barry Cowan.

Murray has the opportunity of taking over the number one spot if he wins the three remaining tournaments of 2016 - starting with Vienna this week - and the dominant Djokovic fails to defend his points.

There are 500 ATP ranking points on offer at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna this week before the stars head to the final Masters 1000 event in Paris next Monday.

And there could be a huge climax to the season when the top eight players in the world head to the ATP World Tour Finals at London's O2 Arena next month, which you __can watch live on Sky Sports.

"He's currently 915 points behind Djokovic in the Race to London so if he __can get 500 points this week for winning in Vienna - of course it's going to be a tough ask - but Andy is in incredible form right now fresh from winning a couple of titles in China," Cowan told Sky Sports.

"A thousand points next week to the winner in Paris and then 1,500 points to the undefeated winner at the World Tour Finals and if Murray was to win all three, well. That's taking into account that Djokovic is not necessarily performing to his usual high standards."

Murray was a serial trophy winner in China

The tennis expert feels Murray will eventually overtake his arch-nemesis, but he may have to wait until 2017 to do it in order to take his place among the 'Big Four' with Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

"Realistically, I do feel that Andy will get there, but I don't think it will be this year," he said. "I think it will be at some stage next year because earlier this year he didn't do well in Indian Wells and Miami.

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"It would be huge for him to get to number one and he would thoroughly deserve it and it would feel rightly so amongst the other three.

"We all talk about the top four - which in my opinion has been the greatest generation there has ever been and the other three have won numerous Grand Slams and been world number one.

"I think it would be really unfair on Andy given what he's contributed to the pack if he didn't end his career being world number one.

"His performances this year have been incredibly consistent and that's what maybe he's lacked in previous years. He's always been very, very good in the Grand Slams but he's never been able to have that consistency in the Masters or the 500s, but this year he's been superb in everything."

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