Andy Murray outgunned Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 7-6(2) in the final of the China Open yesterday to claim his 40th career title.

Murray closed out the match in an hour and 57 minutes to draw closer in the rankings to world number one Novak Djokovic in the battle for the year-end top spot.

The Briton is now 1,555 points behind Djokovic, who could not defend his title in China because of an elbow problem, with plenty of points up for grabs at the remaining events of the season in Shanghai, Paris and the Tour finals in London.

Murray took the first set and looked set to serve out the second when leading 5-4 before Dimitrov fought back to force a tiebreak.

The Scot, who did not drop a set in Beijing, earned an immediate mini-break and went on to win his fifth title of the season.

“It was probably my best match of the week,” Murray, who dropped just eight points on his first serve, told the ATP website.

“My second serve tonight was probably the best part of my game. A lot of the unreturned serves came off second serves. Considering the conditions were fairly cold, I was still serving over a hundred miles an hour on some second serves,” he added.

Murray has had a busy European summer, having reached the French Open final, secured a second Wimbledon triumph, and then successfully defended his Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro.

He is scheduled to play next in the Shanghai Masters this month.

In the women’s final, Agnieszka Radwanska collected her 20th career WTA title after a dominant 6-4 6-2 victory over Britain’s Johanna Konta.

Third seed Radwanska, the 2011 champion, did not drop a set on her run to the title and closed out her win over Konta in an hour an 36 minutes.

Konta, who is guaranteed a top-10 spot when the new rankings are released and is the first British woman to rise so high since Jo Durie in 1984, committed 34 unforced errors against Radwanska and struggled on serve.

The Pole finished with just eight unforced errors and wrapped up victory with an ace.