My next step is to be world No 1, says magical Murray

New US Open champion aims to top the rankings – and win Wimbledon – after finally landing first Slam

Andy Murray has ended Britain's 76-year wait for a male Grand Slam champion, but the 25-year-old Scot said here yesterday he has no intention of resting on his laurels. Murray arrives home today following his historic victory over Novak Djokovic in the US Open final on Monday night and plans to talk at the end of the week to Ivan Lendl, his coach, about the challenges ahead.

Having overtaken Rafael Nadal to become world No 3 in yesterday's updated ranking list, Murray now has his eyes on the No 1 position. There are plenty of ranking points to be won in the remaining two months of the season and the year-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London will be his biggest target.

"I want to keep improving, I want to keep trying to win," Murray said. "Obviously, I know how good it feels to win a Grand Slam and to win the Olympics, and I know how hard it was losing the Wimbledon final. You want to try to win those big matches and big tournaments and I'm going to work hard to try to do it again."

Given the fact that Murray had a lean spell between this year's Australian Open and Wimbledon, the next nine months give him an excellent chance of reaching the top of the rankings

"That is the next step," he said. "To do that, you need to be consistent throughout the whole year. That's something that Novak and Roger [Federer] and Rafa [Nadal] have done incredibly well the last few years. They made it very difficult for other guys to get up there. I'm going to try. It's something I'd love to do, to get to No 1."

Ending Britain's equally long wait for a Wimbledon champion will be another target next year. "I'm just glad I can move on with my career now," Murray said. "If I was to stop playing tennis now I would retire very happy, but hopefully I've got five more years or so at the top of the game. That's what I'll try to do. I'll try to stay healthy and look after my body."

Murray revealed that he found playing on hard courts so demanding that he took painkillers before most of his matches. "It does take a lot out of the body and this is for sure the most demanding surface," he said. "You can wake up with stiff back, hips, knees. I can't do it, but the way Novak slides on the court I'm sure his ankles are pretty sore in the morning."