Top Four Seeds make it to the last 16 at Shanghai
This week, the upper four seeds at the 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters have all made it to the next round of the event, wrapping up easy victories at second round matches of the tournament. These four tennis pros are World Number 1 Rafael Nadal, World Number
2 Novak Djokovic, World Number 3 Roger Federer and World Number 4, Andy Murray.
The world’s top player, Rafael “Rafa” Nadal dominated his match at the Shanghai Masters, decimating Swiss player Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. The Spaniard has been unbeatable this year, with three Grand Slam titles and the same amount of
ATP 1000 Masters victories under his belt. Wawrinka was simply not a match for this 24 year old’s run of success; the tennis pro from Switzerland has lost all six of their previous meetings, and this loss raises the score to 7-love in Nadal’s favour.
Nadal has been on a roll this year. So far, he has only lost 8 matches – his winning record is now 67, after his success against Wawrinka, out of a total of 75 matches. Wawrinka served first, and made many unforced errors, surrendering his service to Nadal.
Rafa meanwhile had an early break, settling into a comfortable 2-0 lead. Despite a lack of breaks in the rest of the set, the World Number 1 player finished the set 6-4 in his favour. The next set was similar, with Wawrinka struggling to fight another early
break, but losing out in the seventh game with Nadal’s 4-3 lead. He closed the match 6-4. Wawrinka had a total of 36 unforced errors in the two sets, whereas Nadal only had 12. Rafa has never lost a set to Stanislas Wawrinka.
At a brief press conference after the match, Nadal said, “Wawrinka is a very good player and is very difficult to have a victory today in straight set. But it wasn't one of these very very difficult days."
Second seed Serbian player Djokovic also made it to the last 16, scoring a straight set victory over Croatia’s tennis pro Ivan Ljubicic. The 23 year old Serbian has scored seven victories against Ljubicic in nine meetings. Djokovic had received a bye in
the first round, whereas Ljubicic had narrowly won a 153 minute match against local Zhang Ze; he struggled to find his footing from the very beginning of the match, and was 0-3 from the first three games. He held serve in the fourth game, but Djokovic, eight
years younger, claimed the first set. Despite a better start in the second set, Ljubicic encountered problems with his right arm. Djokovic, who recently won his second title in Beijing, says he feels just fine for this tournament.
“No fatigue. Actually it's a great start," said the World Number Two. “Beijing was one of the best tournaments I've had in the year. So definitely I'm confident on the court.” He is the first of the top four to make the last 16; speaking of his opponent,
he showed admiration, saying, “he is a big server. When he needed to, he served well.”
In other news, Swiss Roger Federer decimated John Isner of the United States 6-3, 6-4, while American Andy Murray defeated local wild card World Number 465 Bai Yan 6-2, 6-2.
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