(CNN) Andy Murray kept up his dogged pursuit of Novak Djokovic at the top of the world rankings by beating Grigor Dimitrov in the final of the China Open in Beijing Sunday.
Victory at the ATP 500 event has seen the British star move a little closer to his Serbian rival and world number one, who did not defend his title in the Chinese capital due to an elbow injury.
With a 500-point haul, Djokovic dropping the same number of points, Murray has moved to within 3695 points in his quest to end the season at the summit of the game.
Djokovic will return to action at this week's Shanghai Masters, where the title would ensure he will maintain his status at the end of year, but with plenty of points on offer in subsequent events in the Paris Masters and ATP World Tour Finals in London there is still much at stake.
Scot Murray will go into Shanghai as the form player after not dropping a set on his way to his first China Open title and 15th-ranked Dimitrov, still seeking his first title since Queen's in 2014, admitted as much.
"Andy's pretty much the greatest player this year. He's been winning a lot and has a lot of confidence. He obviously knows how to move well on the court. All the credit to him," he told the official ATP Tour website.
Dimitrov, who secured a walkover victory over Milos Raonic in the semifinals, still provided a stiff test for Murray, the Wimbledon and Rio Olympics champion.
But the Bulgarian could not recover from dropping his service in the opening game and eventually conceded the set on a single break.
Murray moved a break ahead in the second set and served for the match only to be broken to love by Dimitrov's inspired play.
But he could not maintain the run and Murray ran out a 7-2 winner in the tiebreak to wrap up a 6-4 7-6 victory in just under two hours.
It was his fifth title of the season and 40th of his career, the 16th man to reach that mark in the Open era.
Earlier, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland ended the hopes of Britain's Johanna Konta, winning the WTA final at the same venue 6-4 6-2 for her 20th career crown.
In other ATP Tour action, Nick Krygios kept up his hopes of making the end of season Tour finals in London by winning the Japan Open title as he beat David Goffin of Belgium 4-6 6-3 7-5 in the final.
It was the first title at ATP 500 level for the 21-year-old Australian, who fired 25 aces to beat Goffin.
"It was a high-quality match, but I got lucky at times as well," Krygios told the ATP website.