ANDY Murray insisted the world No 1 spot wasn’t on his mind as he prepared to take on Roberto Bautista Agut in today’s Shanghai Masters final.
The Spaniard shocked Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 in the first semi- final, before Murray beat Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-3 to reach his second successive final in Asia and a career-best 10th of the season.
After last week’s title win at the China Open in Beijing, the Scot is continuing to close the gap on Djokovic at the top of the world rankings.
Although Murray is confident of becoming the world’s best player, he is realistic about his chances of achieving that feat this year. “I said that I want to try to get to No 1, but this year it is going to be extremely difficult,” the Scot said. “The loss [for Djokovic] today helps me a little bit, but I’m still quite far away from him, so I’m not thinking about the No 1 ranking this week or right now.
“The start Novak had to the year was incredible but because that was three, four months ago, it’s almost like people are forgetting that he won the Aussie Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and the French Open, so he’s a long way ahead of me. I just want to finish this year as best as I can, it’s been the most successful in my career. The last few months have been some of the most consistent I have had, so I just want to keep it going until the end of the year.”
Murray admitted he found the going tough against Simon, despite winning his 10th straight match without dropping a set. He said: “It was a tough match, probably the hardest one I had this week. It felt unbelievably humid on the court. I don’t know if that’s because the stadium was more full and therefore it was warmer.
“There were lots of long rallies and a lot of ups and downs. Gilles went up a break in the first set and came back at the end of both sets. It was hard. There were a lot of long games and I was behind on a few of my service games. It was a good one to get through in two sets.
“Gilles is a tough guy to play against. Not many players play like him. He hits the ball extremely flat, better than anyone. He’s extremely quick around the court, he changes direction extremely well and its sometimes difficult to get the balance – whether to go for your shots or play possum and slow it down a bit.”
On final opponent Bautista Agut, ranked No 19 in the world, Murray added: “He’s had some very good wins this week. He beat [Jo-Wilfried] Tsonga in the round before so he’s obviously playing very well.
“He pushes the top guys a lot. He’s improving all the time and he’s going to be highly motivated for his first Masters Series final, so for both of us there is lot to play for and it should be a great match.”
Agut said after his win: “I can’t describe how I feel. I’m so happy. I played really good tennis this week, and I hope to play the same tennis in the final. I think in the first set [Djokovic] played some good tennis. He played a little bit better than me. But at 5-4, I started to play more aggressive and I started to play better tennis.”
Elsewhere, Naomi Broady and Heather Watson are in the women’s doubles final at the Hong Kong Open after beating Japan’s Nao Hibino and Aleksandrina Naydenova of Bulgaria 6-2, 6-1.
The British pair face Chan Yung-jan and Chan Hao-ching of Chinese Taipei, the No 1 seeds, for the title.
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