Andy: Grabbing No.1 spot will be difficult

ANDY MURRAY insists he is not thinking about the world No. 1 spot after beating Gilles Simon in straight sets to reach his second successive final in Asia.

The 29-year-old will play Roberto Bautista Agut in today’s final of the Shanghai Masters after the Spaniard shocked current No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the first semi-final.

It will be Murray’s career-best 10th final of the season following last week’s success at the China Open in Beijing and he is continuing to close the gap to Serbian Djokovic at the top of the rankings.

Although Murray is confident of becoming the world’s best player, he is realistic in his chances of achieving that feat this year.

Murray said: “I said that I want to try to get to No. 1, but this year is going to be extremely difficult.

“The loss by Djokovic today helps me a little bit, but I’m still quite far away from him, so I’m not thinking about the number one ranking this week or right now.

“The start of the year Novak had was incredible and because it was three, four months ago, it’s almost like people are forgetting that he won the Aussie Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and 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 been, so I just want to keep it going until the end of the year and finish as strong as possible.”

The Scot admitted he found the going tough against Simon, despite winning his 10th straight match without dropping a set.

Murray said: “Obviously there were a lot of breaks of serves and 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 abit.

“It’s not always easy to get the tactics right, but I managed to get through it.”

On final opponent Bautista Agut, he 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 a lot to play for for both of us and it should be a great match.”