Shanghai, China (Sports Network) - This week's top-six seeds, including
Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and two-time reigning champion Andy Murray, all
reached the third round at the $3.5 million Shanghai Masters, the eighth of
nine ATP Masters events this year.
Playing for the first time in 3 1/2 weeks, the world No. 1 and 2010 Shanghai
runner-up Federer held off Taiwanese qualifier Yen-Hsun Lu 6-3, 7-5 on the
hardcourts at Qizhong Tennis Center.
Next up for the super Swiss will be 13th-seeded good friend and fellow
countryman Stanislas Wawrinka. Wawrinka snuck past Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin
6-4, 4-6, 6-4 on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the second-seeded former No. 1 Djokovic whipped Bulgarian Grigor
Dimitrov 6-3, 6-2, while the third-seeded Murray moved on via walkover when
German Florian Mayer pulled out of their scheduled Day-4 match, citing a rib
injury. Djokovic, who is now 49-1 against non-Top-10 players this year, is
fresh off his title in Beijing last week.
The U.S. Open champion and Olympic gold medalist Murray captured his second
straight Shanghai title by beating Spaniard David Ferrer in last year's
finale at Qizhong.
Djokovic's third-round opponent on Thursday will be Spanish left-hander
Feliciano Lopez, while Murray will encounter Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov.
Fourth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych cruised past Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3,
6-3, while fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga topped fellow Frenchman Benoit Paire
7-6 (9-7), 7-5. Tsonga was last week's Beijing runner-up to Djokovic.
Berdych will battle American Sam Querrey on Thursday, while Tsonga will take
on Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.
Sixth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic beat fellow Serb Viktor Troicki 6-2, 7-6 (7-3),
while Czech veteran Radek Stepanek upset 11th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet
6-4, 6-4 and Baghdatis ousted 12th-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic 7-6 (7-4), 6-7
(5-7), 7-6 (7-3). Raonic was last week's runner-up in Tokyo.
In other second-round action involving seeds, Querrey took out No. 14 Japanese
Kei Nishikori 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, Dolgopolov ousted No. 15 Frenchman Gilles Simon
6-3, 6-4, and Lopez took out No. 16 German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-4.
Nishikori was fresh off his title in Tokyo.
One other second-rounder saw German Tommy Haas dismiss fellow former top-10
star Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-3, 6-3. Haas will battle Tipsarevic on Thursday.
The 2012 Shanghai champ will collect $669,450.
The Sports Network