Murray destroys Federer as he qualifies for ATP World finals

As the tennis season starts to draw to a close, the Shanghai Masters threw-up some fascinating results as Andy Murray walked away with the title.

Murray’s defeat of Federer in the final wasn’t that surprising considering his 8-5 head-to-head record over the Swiss ace, but the defeat will hurt Federer as he still searches for the win to equal Pete Sampras’ record of 18 ATP Masters titles.

But Federer’s appearance in the final means he regains the world number two spot from Novak Djokovic, who lost to Federer in the semi-final despite his incredible form on the hard courts.

The emergence of Federer and Murray from a very strong Shanghai Masters field, may suggest that Rafael Nadal will not have it all his own way in the grand slam tournaments next year – especially after the Spaniard exited the tournament in the third round.

Nadal is 12/1 to win all four grand slam tournaments next year, and Novak Djokovic was seemingly the main challenger to Nadal, after the speculated demise of Federer.

But Federer pushed aside Djokovic in the semi-final of the Shanghai Masters, before being dominated in the final by Murray who won 6-3, 6-2.

Federer is 1/1 to emerge from 2011 with no grand slam wins, but talk of a demise may be premature, and Federer will be challenging in the latter stages of all four grand slams.

Murray needs to take a huge amount of belief from this win if he is to finally win his first grand slam, but he was so impressive against Federer that the Scot may have finally found the mentality to mix it with the best.

Murray is 5/1 to win the Australian Open and 6/1 to win Wimbledon, headed only in the ATP Tour betting by Nadal and Federer.

Federer is in action in the Stockholm open and is 8/11 to win the tournament. See the full tennis betting odds market here.