2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters: Andy Murray upsets Yan Bai to join Last 16
World number 4 Andy Murray powered through to the Last 16 of the 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters, serving a ruthless defeat to home player Yan Bai in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. Yan Bai, an unseeded player and currently at the bottom most rungs of the ATP rankings
at World number 465, defeated Czech Radek Stepanek on Tuesday at the first round of the event.
Before his match with Andy Murray, Bai had described the upcoming match as a definite “learning experience”. Despite Bai’s recent success, Murray was never in any danger of losing the match. Although his victory was not as swift as anyone might have expected,
Murray only took five of the 13 break points offered to him in the match. This may be criticized after looking at Bai’s ranking, who is 461 places beneath Murray. It was nevertheless a definite walkover for Murray, affording Bai a lesson in masterful technique
and efficiency at the sport.
After an extremely mediocre run at last week’s China Open in Beijing, Andy Murray was determined and merciless in this tournament, and seemed focused on destroying Yan Bai’s hopes of another upset in the second round. He charged into the match, and it was
clear from the beginning of the day that the Chinese wild card player Bai was very much out of his league. He tried to stamp his authority but quickly wavered from the strong game which had enabled him to defeat Stepanek just a day ago. Bai fired several weak
shots into the net, giving Murray easy access to a beginning lead of 4-0 in the first set. The 21-year-old player appeared to recover slightly in the next two games, and held his own by finding himself defending a break point to Murray, as the World number
4 appeared to grow distracted. As hopeful as this might have made Bai, Murray quickly reverted to form, hitting an overhead smash which won him the game and the first set.
At the beginning of the second set, Murray broke twice, providing him a 3-0 lead. Bai refused to give up at this point, and fought his way to a break into game four, by serving Murray a winner.
However, the World number 4 held his ground, and regained the advantage on Bai’s next service game. He then put a forehand wide, holding his serve to take a 5-1 lead against the Chinese player. Despite wasting a match point in the seventh game by smashing
a forehand shot into the net, he ended the challenge in 1 hour and 21 minutes with a victory which throws him into the last 16. His victory was achieved by the execution of a neat drop shot, which levelled his final score at the end of the match to 6-2, 6-2.
Andy Murray will be facing French qualifier Jeremy Chardy in the third round of the Shanghai Masters event.
Other players in the last sixteen include World number 2 Novak Djokovic, who defeated Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. Fifth seed Robin Soderling also managed a victory against Serbian player Janko Tipsarevic, ending at a final score of
6-3, 7-6, to secure a third-round match. Nadal defeater Guillermo Garcia Lopez will also be present, due to a forfeit by Andy Roddick.
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