Federer, Djokovic and Murray ease into Shanghai third-round; Gasquet, Raonic upset
October 10, 2012 · Print This Article
Shanghai Rolex Masters—China
The world’s top three players advanced to the third-round of the eighth Masters 1000 event of the year on Wednesday in Shanghai in comfortable fashion.
First up, recent Beijing winner Novak Djokovic swept aside up and comer Grigor Dmitrov 6-3, 6-2 in 54 minutes. Never giving the young Bulgarian a chance to get into the match, Djokovic won 91 percent of his first serve points, struck five aces and broke serve on three occasions. Djokovic, who could mathematically become No. 1 at the end of the week, will next face Feliciano Lopez for a quarterfinal berth.
Elsewhere, US Open champion Andy Murray received a walkover after Florian Mayer withdrew prior to the start of the their match. The Scot will next face Alexandr Dolgopolov in the third-round. The two-time defending winner has never lost a match in Shanghai.
Top seed Roger Federer got off on the right foot in his first match this week, surviving a valiant second set from Yen-Hsun Lu before prevailing 6-3, 7-5.
Hitting his classic forehand early and often, Federer broke his opponent at 5-6 in the second set before serving out the match to love. Improving to 62-8 on the season, Federer will next face countryman Stanislas Wawrinka. The Swiss No. 2 fought past Denis Istomin 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 earlier in the day.
World Tour finals contenders Richard Gasquet and Milos Raonic were sent packing on Day 4 action, losing to Radek Stepanek and Marcos Baghdatis, respectfully.
Gasquet went out to the veteran Czech 6-4, 6-4, while Raonic lost a heart-breaker to Baghdatis 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 7-6(3).
Other winners on the day included No. 4 seed Tomas Berdych, No. 6 seed Janko Tipsarevic, Sam Querrey and Tommy Haas.
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