Andy Murray has swapped places with Rafael Nadal to move to third in the ATP world rankings.

The Scot, 27, climbed to his highest ranking since occupying second place after beating Serbia's Novak Djokovic in the 2013 Wimbledon final.

He had dropped to 12th in Septemberlast year after missing three months following back surgery on a long-standing disc injury the previous year.

Djokovic maintains top spot with Switzerland's Roger Federer second.

The only other change in the top 10 is Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov moving one place above Marin Cilic of Croatia, who drops to 11th.

Murray is is seeded third at the Dubai Duty Free Championships, and begins his title bid against Luxembourg's Gilles Muller later today.

His last outing was a quarter-final defeat to Frenchman Gilles Simon in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, but his form over the past few months has been impressive.

Murray won back-to-back ATP tour events in Vienna and Valencia towards the end of last season and started this season by reaching the final of the Australian Open, where he lost in four sets to Djokovic.

Nadal lost his first semi-final on clay for 12 years as he was beaten by Fabio Fognini 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 at the Rio Open.