Henman: 'Murray better than Djokovic in last six months'

Murray overcame Djokovic to win the Internazionali d'Italia in April, triumphing at Queen's and Wimbledon before successfully defending his Olympic title at Rio 2016.

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray after the 2016 French Open final.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic may be the world number one in ATP rankings but former British tennis player Tim Henman thinks Andy Murray has been the better player over the past six months.

Murray overcame Djokovic to win the Internazionali d'Italia in April, triumphing at Queen's and Wimbledon before successfully defending his Olympic title at Rio 2016.

However, the world number two lost the Madrid Open and French Open finals to the Serbian, who suffered early exits at the Monte Carlo Masters, Wimbledon and the Olympics and missed out on a 13th major title to Stan Wawrinka at the US Open.

Murray was eliminated by Kei Nishikori at the quarter-final stage in Flushing Meadows, but Henman still thinks he's had a better six months than Djokovic.

"If you look at Murray's performances over the last six months, it's been the best in the world. From Monte Carlo, through the clay [season], winning in Rome, he made his first French Open final, losing to Djokovic," Henman told Omnisport.

"He won Queen's, won Wimbledon again, unbelievable performance, then straight onto Rio to defend his Olympic title. It's just absolutely relentless the big tournament, the big matches he's played.

"He got a little bit frustrated but after six months of almost perfect tennis, he's a human being at the end of the day. He didn't quite play his best but Nishikori is a great player, so still plenty to play for Andy Murray for the rest of the year," said Henman.

However, Henman is not sure Murray will be able to displace Djokovic at the top of the rankings by the end of 2016, with March 2017 a more realistic target.

"I don't think it's [Murray getting number one] out of the window in terms of a 52-week rolling ranking. I think for the end of this year, to try and finish number one will be hard," continued the former world number four.

"I think Andy is 2,000 points behind so he's going to need a hell of an indoor season and World Tour Finals at the O2 [Arena]. It's not impossible but Djokovic is certainly the favourite.

"If you look at 52 weeks starting from March in Monte Carlo and if Andy plays incredibly well between now and March and plays better than Djokovic then I think he's got a chance of being world number one," concluded Henman.