Murray Gets A Walkover, Now Must Dance With The Dog; Federer On Brink Of 300 At Shanghai
Of the Top 3 seed in Shanghai, Andy Murray had the easiest afternoon: He didn’t play. The two-time defending champion Murray moved into the third round without hitting a ball when his opponent, Florian Mayer, withdrew with a wrist injury. Next up for the Scot is a date tonight against the quirky Alexandr Dolgopolov. Murray has won all three meetings with the Ukranian.
While Murray watched, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic did play their second round matches on Wednesday, and they won without much sweat. Federer knocked out Yen-Hsun Lu while Djokovic dispatched Grigor Dimitrov.
Federer now plays good buddy and fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka. If Roger wins – he’s 11-1 lifetime against Stan – he’ll be guaranteed of at least one more week as the No. 1 player in world, and that would also be his 300th week at the top position.
“I’m obviously excited,” said Federer of reaching 300. “It’s a big number, even though 299 or 300 doesn’t make a big difference for me. It’s obviously a big match for me. If you look back, there’s many matches where there was a lot on the line, so this is just another one. It’s just more the difficulty also playing a good friend. That adds to the special occasion tomorrow.”
Federer will play his match in the evening local time, a schedule he likes with the family not with him this week in Asia.
“Sleep in, play late. Sleep in, play late,” Federer said. “That’s sort of the schedule now. I don’t have much time to get around anymore. It’s now spending most time at the courts right now.”
If Federer loses the door will be open for Djokovic who would reclaim No. 1 by winning the title coupled with a Wawrinka victory. The Serb faces Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.
Other winners on Wednesday included Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Janko Tipsarevic, Tommy Haas and Marcos Baghdatis who upset Milos Raonic in three tiebreakers. Sam Querrey also scored a nice win beating Tokyo champion Kei Nishikori.
SHANGHAI SCHEDULE
STADIUM start 2:00 pm
[5] J Tsonga (FRA) vs M Baghdatis (CYP)
F Lopez (ESP) vs [2] N Djokovic (SRB)
Not Before 6:00 PM
[3] A Murray (GBR) vs A Dolgopolov (UKR)
Not Before 8:00 PM
[1] R Federer (SUI) vs [13] S Wawrinka (SUI)
GRANDSTAND start 2:00 pm
S Querrey (USA) vs [4] T Berdych (CZE)
R Stepanek (CZE) vs [8] J Isner (USA)
[10] M Cilic (CRO) vs F Verdasco (ESP)
Not Before 6:00 PM
[6] J Tipsarevic (SRB) vs T Haas (GER)
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