Tennis News

Rafael Nadal’s Asian swing gathered further momentum on Thursday with the eighth seed posting a 6-3, 7-6(3) triumph over Canada’s Milos Raonic at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. After reaching his first hard-court final of the season last week in Beijing, Nadal registered his first win over a Top-10 opponent in six attempts to reach the quarter-finals. His last was against World No. 7 Tomas Berdych at ATP Masters 1000 Madrid.

The 2009 Shanghai runner-up broke Raonic’s opening service game for 2-0 when the No. 9 seed fired a forehand well wide. He maintained the advantage to serve out the opening set with Raonic dumping a backhand return into the net on set point.

“Today, I felt that I was not playing with as much nerves when I am on court,” said Nadal. “I was able to enjoy the match.”

Nadal scored the early mini-break in the second-set tie-break for 1/0. He surged to 5/2 and whipped a forehand passing shot winner to bring up four match points. He secured the match on his second chance when Raonic’s forehand hit the net. The win extended Nadal’s FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Raonic to 6-1 and avenges a quarter-final defeat the last time the pair met at ATP Masters 1000 Indian Wells this year.

“Winning a match 7‑6 in the third yesterday and winning a match again today in the tiebreak of a second set, two tiebreaks without losing a point with my serve, it’s impossible if you don’t have control of your emotions.  That’s something that, a couple of months ago, would have been impossible for me,” added Nadal.

 “My serve obviously worked much better than yesterday, but when I play well on my service game, it’s not just because I serve well, but especially because I play well from the baseline,” said Nadal, who has not dropped serve since being broken by Ivo Karlovic in the opening game of the second round.

Nadal’s quarter-final foe will be Stan Wawrinka, who needed nearly three hours to overcome Marin Cilic, 7-5, 6-7(7), 6-4. The Swiss came away with the first set by break his opponent on the final point, but squandered a match point in the second-set tie-break before closing out the win in three. The Spaniard leads the rivalry 12-2, but Wawrinka has not dropped a set in the pair’s past two meetings (2015 Rome and 2015 Australian Open).

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic improved to a 13-match winning streak on Wednesday as he reached the third round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters with an emphatic 6-2, 6-1 victory over Martin Klizan.

The Serb is looking to win the Beijing-Shanghai double for the third time (2012-13). Last week, he surged to a sixth China Open crown in Beijing for the loss of just 18 games in five matches – the lowest five-match total of his career en route to a title. It marked his eighth tour-level title of the season, which has already seen him clinch the year-end No. 1 spot in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

In his second clash this season with Klizan, Djokovic converted five of his 10 break points and lost only one point behind his second serve as he raced to victory in 63 minutes. The Belgrade native improved to a 69-5 match record on the season and a 20-3 mark in Shanghai.

“Klizan is a very flashy player,” said Djokovic. “I knew that coming into the court.  I knew that he’s talented. He can play very fast but with a tendency to make a lot of unforced errors, which he did. He made my life a bit easier on the court today. I was trying to serve, move him around the court. Just played as much as I needed. It was enough to win.

“I’m aware of the mental edge that I might have over a certain amount of players, and I try to use that,” continued the Serb. “I try to win and do anything that is possible and necessary for me to achieve that. Probably that was the case, him not being able to maybe perform as well as he wanted.” 

Fourth seed Stan Wawrinka also maintained his winning run, defeating Viktor Troicki 7-6(3), 6-3. The Swiss is coming off his fourth title of the season in Tokyo last week (d. Paire) and dismissed Troicki in 88 minutes, breaking serve twice from eight opportunities.

Wawrinka, who has never been past the quarter-finals in six appearances in Shanghai, set a third-round contest with Marin Cilic, whom he leads 8-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.  

Richard Gasquet battled to a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Vasek Pospisil to set a third-round clash with Bernard Tomic. The 11^th-seeded Frenchman withstood 13 aces from Pospisil to break the Canadian’s serve three times, triumphing in just over two hours.

Andy Murray showed few signs of rust on Wednesday as he returned to action after a three-week break to beat Steve Johnson 6-2, 6-4 in the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters.

The Scot was competing for the first time since leading Great Britain into the Davis Cup final with victory over Australia in Glasgow. In his first meeting with the No. 47-ranked Johnson, Murray converted four of his five break points, including a break of serve in the final game of the match to claim victory in 74 minutes.

“I felt good,” said Murray. “I thought I moved well from the beginning, struck the ball cleanly. From my side, I was happy with the way that I played and also the way my body felt. I thought I moved around the court very well. That’s obviously an important part of my game. That was key.” 

The 28-year-old Murray is a two-time former champion at this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament, lifting the trophy in 2010 (d. Federer) and 2011 (d. Ferrer). He also finished runner-up in 2012, losing a close contest to Novak Djokovic.

Murray has a 62-10 mark on the season, highlighted by winning four ATP World Tour titles. He will look to reach the Shanghai quarter-finals when he takes on John Isner on Thursday. Murray takes a 4-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head advantage over Isner into the third-round clash, most recently beating the 6’10” American in the Davis Cup earlier this year.

Looking ahead to the Isner clash, Murray said, “We’re playing 1:30 tomorrow. The court plays a little bit quicker during the day. When the sun goes down and you play in the evening, it can slow the conditions down. Playing earlier makes it a little bit quicker. So breaking serve will be tougher.

“But, I played well against him in the past. I’ve won some close ones against him. But he’s played very well this year. He’s been a lot more consistent outside of the States this year. It will be a tough match.”

Fifth seed Tomas Berdych survived a stern test against Jack Sock, edging the American 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and 25 minutes. Sock was made to rue converting just three of 14 break point chances, including missing three break points in the final game as Berdych served out the victory.

The 30-year-old Berdych is fifth in the Emirates ATP Race To London and next in line to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. The Czech recently won his first ATP World Tour title of the season in Shenzhen (d. Garcia-Lopez) and has a 50-17 mark on the year.

Berdych goes on to face 10^th seed Gilles Simon, who rallied from a set down to beat Leonardo Mayer 6-7(0), 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 37 minutes. Simon was runner-up in Shanghai last year (l. to Federer). The Frenchman has enjoyed success against Berdych in the past, winning seven of their 11 meetings, including in the Shanghai quarter-finals last year.