Murray up to World No 2 after Miami Masters win

Andy Murray battled past David Ferrer 2-6 6-4 7-6 (7-1) in the final of the Miami Masters to regain the world number two ranking.

The Scot was not quite at his best, having to save a match point during a disjointed, gruelling but ultimately thrilling contest which featured an incredible 15 breaks of serve, but he produced the goods when it mattered, dominating the decisive tie-break to claim his second title at the Masters 1000 event.

The victory brought a 26th career title and ensured he will pass Roger Federer in the new world rankings on Monday.

Murray made a nightmare start, being broken in the second game and then dropping serve again in the fourth after slicing a backhand into the net.

He finally managed to get on the scoreboard by winning his third service game before breaking Ferrer straight afterwards with a superb forehand down the line, but the third seed broke to love to close out the set.

The British No 1 looked a lot more assured at the start of the second, asserting himself from the baseline and gaining the upper hand with a break in the third game.

Murray lost his advantage in the eighth game as he once more sent a sliced backhand into the net at an untimely interval, but he hit straight back to claim his second break of the set before serving it out to force a decider.

Both players looked to be feeling the nerves at the start of the third set as several errors crept into their respective games during a remarkable run of six breaks of serve.

It was Ferrer who finally managed to hold onto his serve in a seventh game which saw Murray complain about noise from the crowd, but the Brit regained his composure to secure his first hold of the set next time out.

Ferrer then whipped a forehand into the net while break point down in the ninth game of the set but Murray could not serve the match out, instead falling 6-5 behind following a confident hold from the Spaniard.

Murray faced a match point and saved it with a helping hand from Ferrer. Murray’s groundstroke clipped the baseline, and although Ferrer put the ball back into play he felt it was long and challenged.

The replay showed the ball clipped the back of the line, and Murray won the next two points to set up the tie-break, and with Ferrer on his last legs, the new world number two ripped through it 7-1 to close out the victory in two hours and 45 minutes