Andy Murray clinches his third Shanghai Masters title

Andy Murray shows off the Shanghai Masters trophy

Andy Murray closed in on world No.1 Novak Djokovic after winning his sixth title of the year with victory at the Shanghai Masters today.

The Scot beat Roberto Bautista Agut, Djokovic’s semi-final conqueror, 7-6 (7/1) 6-1 in 96 minutes to extend his winning run to ten matches after triumphing at the China Open in Beijing a week ago.

Victory in Shanghai, Murray’s 41st career title, cut the gap to Djokovic to 915 points.

The first set went with serve until Murray broke his Spanish opponent to take a 4-3 lead but when Bautista Agut broke back and then made it 6-5, Murray took the first set to a tie-break with a love game.

He cruised through the tie-break 7-1 to make it 19 sets won in a row before three breaks of service, to his opponent’s one, in the second set eased the Briton into a 5-1 lead from where he closed out the match with a number of 100mph second serves and powerful groundstrokes.