Federer Drops Out of Top Three, Murray Claims Third Ranking

Sixteen-time grand slam winner Roger Federer has been ousted from third spot in the world rankings after Andy Murray claimed a third title in as many weeks in Shanghai.

The Scot defeated David Ferrer in straight sets, with a scoreline of 7-5 6-4, to successfully defend the Shanghai Masters. He had defeated world number two Rafael Nadal last week to take the Japan Open and had thrashed Donald Young in the final at Bangkok a week before.

Murray was in such exemplary form that Ferrer was helpless in preventing him from taking a hat-trick of tournament victories in Asia. The win means the British number one will rise to third spot in the new world rankings, and will be placed above Federer for the first time in his career.

In fact, it is the first time Federer has fallen out of the top three since June 2003. The Swiss has the world record for holding the top ATP ranking for 237 consecutive weeks.

When asked of the feat, Murray revealed that improving his ranking wasn't one of his targets at the beginning of the year.

It's not something I aimed for at the start of the year, Murray told Sky Sports. You want to try to finish at No1 if you can. After the US Open that wasn't possible. I needed to reassess my goals.

I wanted to finish the year at three if possible. I haven't done that before. That still isn't complete. I'm still going to have to win some more matches to do that.

But the last three weeks have been very good. I've had a good mindset and fought really hard in all the matches. Here I got a bit tired but I wanted to keep the run going. I'm really happy with the way I'm playing and hope I can keep it up for the rest of the year.