TENNIS world number one Andy Murray from Dunblane has capped an extraordinary year with the announcement in the New Year’s Honours List that he is to be knighted by the Queen.

Despite saying recently that he thought he was too young to be knighted, Murray has accepted the honour and will become Sir Andrew Barron Murray, OBE.

It rounds off a year in which he won his second Wimbledon title, a second successive Olympic Gold medal, the ATP World Tour finals, reached the final of the Australian and French Opens and went 24 matches without defeat to lift five consecutive titles amassing $16.3 million in prize money.

He also carried the British team flag at the Olympic opening ceremony, and won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for a record third time, though his own personal highlight of the year was on 7 February when he and wife Kim welcomed their first child, Sophia Olivia, into the world.

But perhaps the closely-guarded secret of his knighthood preyed too much on Murray’s mind yesterday as he suffered a shock defeat in the year-ending Mubadala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi. It was the first time he had ever been beaten by David Goffin of Belgium.

Murray has caused controversy at times, notably when advocating a Yes vote in the Scottish independence referendum two years ago, but he has also always dealt in a dignified manner with the fact that he narrowly escaped death in Dunblane Primary School on the day that Thomas Hamilton committed his infamous massacre in 1996.

The clamour for him to be knighted became unstoppable after he won a second gold medal at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil – the first man to retain the Olympic singles title.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “The Queen’s New Year Honours list provides richly deserved recognition for Scots who have shown outstanding service in their chosen fields and admirable dedication in their local communities.

“As a massive tennis fan who, like millions, watched in awe this year as Andy Murray reached the pinnacle of his sport by becoming world number one, I am absolutely delighted to see his talent, achievement and sheer hard work recognized in this way.”

As well as Murray, Scottish tennis performed the unique feat of also having the world number one in the men’s doubles and men’s wheelchair singles.

The new knight’s brother Jamie is the former, and Gordon Reid of Helensburgh is the latter, for which he has been awarded the MBE.

Reid said his MBE is the “icing on the cake” to a wonderful year which saw him win grand slam singles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and doubles titles at the French Open and Wimbledon.

At the Paralympics in Rio, he took singles gold and a silver medal in the doubles, and ended 2016 clear out in front as world number one.

Commenting on his MBE, Reid said: “It’s a great honour for me, it’s been a fantastic year for me, the best year of my career, so to finish it off like this is like the icing on the cake.

“The year started amazingly for me in Australia with my first grand slam title there and to go on to Wimbledon and win the singles and doubles, and then to finish it off in Rio with the gold and silver medals, there’s a lot of things there that I didn’t expect would happen this year and I think receiving my MBE is on that list as well, but it’s been amazing and I’ve loved every minute.”

Reid discovered wheelchair tennis after developing rare neurological condition transverse myelitis, which affects the spinal cord, at the age of 12.

He started playing wheelchair tennis in 2005 and became Britain’s youngest men’s singles national champion in 2007 at the age of 15 and the youngest British men’s No1 shortly before his 18th birthday.

He hopes his MBE might help boost the profile of his sport, saying: “There’s a lot of things which have happened in my career this year which have helped the profile of wheelchair tennis and that’s really exciting for me that I can get our sport out in the public eye a little bit more, so hopefully me being included on the list will help that further.”

An honour that shows Murray's mind is on life after tennis