Murray - forget 'Big Four'

Murray: Madrid master

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Andy Murray has played down talk of him becoming part of a 'Big Four' in men's tennis after his latest success.

Murray became the first British player to win two Masters Shields after Sunday's 6-4 7-6 (8-6) victory over Gilles Simon in Madrid.

And many are saying the 21-year-old Scot has now joined Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic at the summit of tennis.

Although Sunday's win consolidates Murray's fourth position in the world rankings, the man from Dunblane believes he has a long way to go until he can be mentioned in the same breath as the top three.

"I'm still a long way behind them," said Murray. "I've played great the last few months, but those guys have been unbelievable for the last couple of years.

"They are so consistent on every surface and throughout the whole year. The points total that Djokovic has got for being the number three player in the world is ridiculous.

"He would have been by far number one in the world at some stages.

"Those guys have been awesome and I'm still not close to them yet, I still need to keep working hard."

Upper hand

Murray currently holds the upper hand against the top three.

Against Djokovic, Murray has been victorious in both of their last two meetings - beating the Serbian in Cincinnati and Canada this year - having lost all of his previous four clashes with the world number three

At the US Open Murray claimed his first victory in six meetings with world number one Nadal, while against number two Federer the Scot has now won three of his five career clashes, after beating the Swiss superstar in the semi-finals of the Madrid Masters.

Federer had words of encouragement for Murray though after he had been defeated 3-6 6-3 7-5 by the young Scot.

The Swiss, who is arguably the sport's greatest-ever player and last week overtook Pete Sampras as the record prize-money winner in men's tennis history, sees a little bit of himself in Murray with regards to his development.

"Since from the first moment I played him in Bangkok (2005) I knew that if he didn't screw it up himself, he'd most probably be in the top 10 soon," said Federer.

"He was able to achieve that, for some maybe six months too late, for some maybe two years too late as people always like 15-year-olds winning grand slams, but that's not going to happen in the men's game.

"I think he's improved at his pace. I think first he had to grow up a little bit, become a man. I think he's taken that step well and now he seems much more relaxed on the court, which I think helps him.

"He's still fiery, which he's supposed to be. I think you need to give the young guys time to learn.

"He's like me, you can see how he is before and see how he is after. I share that in common with Andy."

Murray, who like Nadal, Federer and Djokovic had already qualified for the Masters Series Cup in Shanghai prior to Madrid, will now look to continue his fine run of form at this week's St Petersburg Open, a tournament he won last year.