Andy Murray cruises into Shanghai Masters final

Murray has won 24 of his last 25 matches

Andy Murray made short work of Japan's Kei Nishikori to reach the final of the Shanghai Masters.

Defending champion Murray, who has already secured titles in Japan and Thailand this month, won 6-3 6-0 in just 56 minutes.

He will play David Ferrer in Sunday's final after the Spaniard beat Feliciano Lopez 6-7 6-3 6-3.

Murray will climb above Roger Federer to number three in the world with victory in the final.

Speaking after his win against Nishikori, the Scot said he is relishing the prospect of leapfrogging the Swiss.

"Obviously that's something that I'll be trying to do for these next few months, because I can't really finish [the year as] the number two or one, so it's just a goal I had for the end of the month," he commented.

"It would be nice to finish the year off as number three if I can because that would be the highest ranking I finished at.

"It's not the ultimate goal, but it's a step in the right direction."

Murray took 26 minutes to wrap up the first set without losing a point on his first serve against the number 47 in the world.

He then raced into a 3-0 lead in the second set against the 21-year-old and, despite a long fourth game in which Murray was frustrated by a line call, he recovered his composure to seal the match in under an hour.

Earlier Ferrer recovered from losing the first set to break Lopez in the third game of the second set.

He then got the decisive break in the third set when Lopez hit a shot wide while serving at 3-4.

Ferrer said: "Maybe today I played the best match of this week.

"When I lost the first set, I tried to forget the tie-break and I tried to focus again. I played better in the second and the third."

Murray beat Ferrer in the semi-final of the Japan Open last week and will be favourite to win a fifth title of the year.