Roger Federer beats Gilles Simon in Shanghai Masters final

World number three Roger Federer has won his first Shanghai Masters title, beating Frenchman Gilles Simon in two tie-breaks to register his 23rd Masters series title and first in China.

The Swiss 17-times grand slam singles champion triumphed 7-6 (8/6) 7-6 (7/2) to register his 23rd Masters Series title and first in China.

The win will now see Federer move above Rafael Nadal into second spot in the world rankings when they are updated on Monday.

The win has seen Federer win the title for the first time as he had previously only managed to finish runner up in 2010. The 33-year-old let off a huge roar and threw both fists into the air after a battling Simon could only net a return to hand the Swiss a fourth title of the year and 81st of an unparalleled career.

Simon got off the perfect start as he broke Federer’s serve in the first game. The rest of the first set went serve and left the unseeded Frenchman serving for the set at 5-4 but Federer earned himself two break points. The Swiss wasted the with an unforced error only for Simon to netting a backhand on the second break point to allow his opponent to level things up.

Federer then easily took the next game and had two set points to close off the first set but Simon managed to find his range with his first serve again and forced a tiebreak with a booming ace.

Simon then had a set point of his own in the tiebreak, but Federer eventually produced a backhand winner to take the first tie break 8-6.

Simon, who had knocked out Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka and sixth seed Tomas Berdych en route to the final, took a medical time out for treatment on a suspected groin problem at the end of the set.

But despite the medical intervention, Simon took the opening set of the set, although that was the only gave on his serve he held with ease.

However, the Frenchman fought on admirably, digging himself out of some early holes to hold his six service games before threatening an unlikely break in the 11th game of the set.

Having struggled to make an impact on the Federer serve throughout the set he fashioned two set points out of nowhere, only to waste both with groundstroke errors as Federer held on.

The Swiss then stepped it up in the breaker, firing some big serves and stunning winners to fashion four championship points with Simon folding on the first.