Murray closes in on world No. 1 spot after Shanghai Masters

Andy Murray closed to within 1,000 ranking points of Novak Djokovic as he claimed the Shanghai Masters title. The world number two was pushed hard in his opening set by Roberto Bautista, who earned a shock semi-final win over Djokovic in the semi-finals. But after that he raced away with the victory, winning 7-6(1) 6-1. The victory sees Murray climb to 9,685 points in the Race to London standing, 915 points behind Djokovic’s 10,600 - and after the ATP Tour Finals in London next month, those race standings will effectively be the season-ending world rankings.

I’m changing the direction of the ball a bit better, moving in behind a bit better, and hitting some bigger serves than I did in the first part of the year.

Andy Murray

After a hard-fought opening spell in Sunday’s final, Murray earned the opening break of the match to lead 4-3, and went on to serve for the set. He was pushed hard, however, that game going to deuce before Murray earned a set point only to double fault. Bautista broke just two points later, leaving Murray roaring at himself in anger. But the Scot regrouped to play a near-flawless tie-break to claim first blood, then backed it up in the second set with supreme tennis that Bautista simply had no answer for.

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