Andy Murray

Andy Murray has been confirmed as the new world number 4 after the 21-year-old Scot reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open, finishing runner-up to the now five-time champion Roger Federer.

See Andy Murray’s Ranking History

Murray has also secured his first trip to the prestigious Tennis Masters Cup at the end of year - he is up to no.4 in the race and cannot drop below number 8 before the end of season.

Jamie Murray and Liezel Huber came through comfortably in their second round mixed doubles match beating Czech duo Kveta Peschke and Pavel Vizner 7-5 6-3 in 1 hour and 19 minutes.

The American and Brit Duo took control from the off and quickly established a 4-1 lead, they looked like they were going to a double break when the secured another break point, but instead their Czech opponents saved the point and broke back back to level the match up at 5-5.

Murray and Huber finished the set strongly with a flourish and a run of 4 games soon saw them secure the first set and go up 2-0 in the second with a break of serve.

It was a lead that they would not give up and they served out for victory and thier place in the quarter finals where they will play either Virginie Razzano and Rogier Wassen or the second seeds Katarina Srebotnik and Nenad Zimonjic.

Murray and Huber have proved a successful partnership and reached the semi-finals in New York 12 months ago and the semi finals of Wimbledon last month.

Andy Murray’s brilliant win in the Cincinnati masters has propelled him up the world rankings to a record high of number 6. He jumps Andy Roddick, David Nalbandian and James Blake and is now within striking distance of that coveted top 5 spot.

Murray is at this very moment just over 600 points behind David Ferrer and Nikolay Davydenko, who will both lose their 2007 Cincinnati Masters and 2007 Rogers cups points in the next weeks. In Daveydenko’s case this will be 350 points and David Ferrer 200 points bringing the gap down considerably. In addition both these players reached the US Open semi-finals last year and anything short of repeating this will likely see Murray leapfrog them if Murray himself reaches the later stages of the US Open having only reached the third round last year.

Roger Federer keeps his first place spot for at least another week, though this only down to the schedule change for the Olympics which means last years Cincinnati Masters points still count towards the total, these will not be removed for another 2 weeks. Though there is nothing Federer can do to stop Nadal from taking over 1st place.

Murray though is destined to finish in the top 5 this year and in the new ATP race rankings Murray is placed in 5th place. The Race rankings are for results to date as opposed to the main ATP rankings which is based on the last 12 months.

Murray’s new 6th place now guarantees him a top 8th seeding at the US Open, which means the earliest he could meet a top 8 player will be the quarter finals.

Andy Murray will meet Ivo Karlovic in the semi finals of the Cincinnati Masters later today. This will be Andy Murray’s second consecutive masters semi final after losing to Rafael Nadal last week in the Rogers Cup.

Murray and Karlovic have met twice before with Murray winning on both occasions. He beat the big serving Croat 7-6(7) 6-7(3) 6-3 in the Masters Series event in Indian Wells earlier this year and in 2007 he won 6-7(3) 6-4 7-6(2) in San Jose.

With 4 of the 6 sets played between these two finishing in tie breaks, this should be a close encounter, though bookmakers still have Murray as the favorite.

Andy Murray’s semi final place in the Rogers Cup has helped him climb up the ATP race rankings from 9th last week to 6th this week. The ATP Race rankings are based on the year to dates performances, the major events (Grand Slams and Masters) count for the majority of the points.

Murray remained in position 9 in the main ATP rankings, but is now only 230 points behind 6th place Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal is now just 300 points behind Federer.