Sports Then and Now

Andy Murray has risen to third in the tennis rankings.

Andy Murray has surged ahead of former world number one, Roger Federer to third in the latest tennis world rankings.

It comes after the Scot impressively won the Shanghai Masters by defeating David Ferrer 7-5, 6-4 to claim his fifth title of the year.

This was the second consecutive year that Murray lifted the title, but he admits he is not getting carried away just yet.

He said: “I’m still not guaranteed to finish at number three, I’m going to have to win some more matches.

“But if you finish in front of Federer in a year, then there’s not many people the last five, six, seven years that have been able to say that.”

The rankings change comes as little surprise, however, with the ageing Federer’s perfomances steadily declining from the days where he dominated the game and earned acclaim as one of the sport’s greatest ever players.

Indeed, this is the first time that fourth-placed Federer has been outside of the world’s top three since winning Wimbledon back in 2003.

Tennis betting pundits note how that was the first of the 16 hugely impressive grand slam titles that he has won to date, undoubtedly elevating him to the pantheon of the greats.

But Murray is under no illusions as to the threat that Federer still poses, and knows he will not give up on trying to reclaim his top three position.

He added: “For a lot of years everything went very right for Federer. He’s had a few tournaments this year where maybe things could have gone his way and they didn’t but I’m sure next year he’ll be competing. He’s still playing great tennis.”

Questions will now be asked by those placing tennis bets as to whether Federer is able to make a return to the top three, but it is true that now he has reached 30, his best years are surely behind him.