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Murray sets his sights on London

Andy Murray is unbeaten in his last 15 matches © PA Photos

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Andy Murray will take a well-earned break before making a decision on his schedule as he bids to cement his status as the new world No. 3.

The Scot leapfrogs Roger Federer in the rankings following his straight sets win over David Ferrer in the Shanghai Masters final, where Murray extended his unbeaten run to 15 matches to complete a hat-trick of titles in the Far East.

Murray has been in sizzling form in Asia as he claimed three titles in as many weeks in Thailand, Japan and China, and he will now take a break before deciding whether he will play in either Valencia or Basel in a fortnight's time.

Should Murray choose to play, he is firmly poised to extend his lead over Federer in the world rankings. With both tournaments worth 500 points, Federer will be under pressure to defend his Swiss Indoors title, while having fallen in the second round of the Valencia Open last year, Murray is likely to pick up more points to consolidate his ranking.

But after three weeks of action, Murray is wary of over-exerting himself ahead of the ATP World Tour Finals in London next month.

"I don't actually know whether I'm going to play that week [in Valencia or Basel] or not, I'm going to make a decision depending how I feel," Murray told Sky Sports. "I'm going to take four or five days off but the goal is to play well at the O2 and try and go further than I have before and I will do everything I can to get ready for that.

"You want to finish No. 1 if you can and after the US Open that wasn't possible so I just reassessed my goals and I wanted to try and finish the year as No. 3, I have never done that before. That still isn't complete; I'm still going to have to win some more matches to do that.

"The last few weeks have been very good: I had a good mindset, I fought really hard in all the matches and even though here I got a bit tired you also want to keep the run going so I maybe felt a little extra nerves, too. I'm really happy with the way I'm playing and I hope I can keep that going for the rest of the year."

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