Last year, around this time, Andy Murray was looking for a good tournament win.  In 2010, Murray reached his second Slam final at the Australian Open and lost once again to Roger Federer.  Not only did tears flow for the Scot, but Murray’s game went into a mini tailspin.  Murray finally righted the ship and won a title in Montreal, but lost early in the US Open to frequent hitting partner, Stan Wawrinka.  He lost early in Beijing to Ivan Ljubicic and was heading into Shanghai looking for an improvement in form.

The draw happen to turn out rather nicely.  At the time, all top 4 players made it to Shanghai.  Rafa was on Murray’s side of the draw but he ran into an attacking Jurgen Melzer who took out the Spaniard in the third round.  Murray’s toughest match was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who, if memory serves, was coming off a bit of injury.  In any case, Murray won their encounter easily, and didn’t face a tough match until the final against Roger Federer.  Oh, who am I kidding?  Even the final was pretty lopsided: 6-3, 6-2.

The few who remember that tournament probably didn’t credit Murray with good play as much as the draw happening to be very nice to Murray.

Fast-forward to this year and we see something similar happening.  Fans were hoping for another Rafa-Andy showdown much like the Tokyo final.  This would have to do because the other top 2 players, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, were skipping Shanghai to recover and recuperate.

Andy Murray did his part.  His first match, ostensibly against Dmitry Tursunov, didn’t happen because Tursunov injured his wrist.  Murray got another day off.  Today’s match was against Stan Wawrinka who isn’t haven’t that great a year, but nonetheless gives Murray enough issues whenever they meet.  Wawrinka recently parted with coach, Peter Lundgren (one of the announcers mistakenly called him Dolph Lundgren perhaps most famous for playing Ivan Drago in one of the Rocky films), and is presumably coachless, although he was seen chit-chatting with Jack Reader and his pupil, Alex Dolgopolov, just before the players were introduced on court (seems like Wawrinka prefers to stretch before heading out to court).

Murray started this match off quickly getting two breaks in the first set.  Wawrinka responded by breaking back once, but Murray held to win the first set.  And, no, Murray did not decide to play Wawrinka like Rafa.  He wasn’t going after huge shots.  It’s the usual thinking for the Scot.  Reserve the heavy hitting for Rafa since it’s high risk.  Play safer with everyone else.  The players, including Murray, have been complaining about the balls.  Indeed, if the player union ever forms, their first target might be something completely odd: tennis balls.

In particular, Murray said this is third kind of tennis ball he’s played with in his three week swing.  They used one kind of ball in Bangkok, a different one in Tokyo, and a different one in Shanghai.  Many players seem to be double-faulting more than usual with the quick ball used in Shanghai.  This wasn’t the first time players had complained.  The French Open signed a long-term deal with Babolat to supply them tennis balls.  Alas, each tournament makes its own deals, so the clay events leading up to the French weren’t obligated (and didn’t) use Babolat tennis balls.

The players complain that, only in tennis, does the ball change so often.  To the naked eye, all tennis balls look the same, but even casual players will have a preference for a tennis ball.  They might play with Penn, but then accidentally play Dunlop and say “ugh, this is a horrible ball”.   Most other ball-oriented sports standardize the ball.  With the business opportunities available, this seems like a long shot.  The players, such as Rafa, would prefer using the same ball over the same part of the season.  Use one ball for the clay events leading up to French.  Use the same ball (not necessarily as the clay events) for the US Open Series leading up to the US Open.  If you wonder why top players sometimes struggle in an opening round, it may very well be due to a change in ball (and surface).

Anyway, back to the Murray-Wawrinka match.  Wawrinka was able to take control of the second set and won it 6-3.  Murray then took another double-break lead in the third set, but Wawrinka got one break back (much like the first set) and Murray closed it out.  It wasn’t the cleanest match by any means.  Murray could have won the match more easily, but a win is a win.

The ATP World Tour Uncovered show, a weekly show about the ATP tour, might be congratulating itself.  It talked to a German fellow that runs a tennis center much like the Casals-Sanchez academy in Germany.  The top German players have gone their for training.  This coach commented that Florian Mayer (pictured above) is a pretty unusual player.  He plays unorthodox, has long arms, etc.  He had a decent season last year and was looking to improve his form.

Apparently, he found it.  After beating a tough David Nalbandian in the previous round, Mayer had the pleasure of playing Rafa.  Mayer’s strategy was to his biggish serve and attack the net, something few players do against Rafa.  You have to be smart to do this.  Can’t attack him all the time.  The key stat in this match was no break points for Rafa.  The first set went to a tiebreak which Mayer won.  Then, Mayer, using his tough two-handed backhand was able to secure a break.  With Rafa down 5-3 and serving to stay in the match, Rafa was up 30-0.

Seems pretty safe right?  Except Mayer started to play better and got it to deuce then to break point.  Rafa rushed the net on break point, and Mayer managed to thread a passing shot and complete the improbably upset.  Mayer was pretty stunned himself at the victory.

David Ferrer started off way down against his compatriot, Juan Carlos Ferrero, who had a double-break lead.  With the number 5 player spraying his forehand all over, it looked like Ferrero might get a win, something he doesn’t do too much against Ferrer.  But in the middle of the second set, Ferrero twisted his ankle and needed medical treatment.  Even so, Ferrero was on serve, and at 5-4 up on Ferrer’s serve, he found himself match points.  The diminutive Ferrer pulled an Andy Murray and aced himself out of trouble.

Ferrer then got a break of his own and closed out the second set.  With Ferrero moving a little less well and Ferrer’s confidence up, Ferrer took the third set easily, 6-2.

Andy Roddick was looking for a good win after having fizzled last week in Beijing.  His match was against Nicolas Almagro who seems to struggle on hard courts despite a big game.  Roddick went back to his formula for winning.  Serve big.  Get into long rallies.  Hope for Almagro to miss.  And pretty much, this worked.  Roddick got a break in each set for a comfortable, 6-3, 6-4 win.  Up next for Roddick is Ferrer, a player that has historically given him trouble, though he did get a nice win over him at the US Open.  At the very least, he knows if he gets by Ferrer, there’s no Rafa waiting afterwards.

As if the draw wasn’t already particularly nice for Andy Murray, he now faces Matthew Ebden, who has been having a pretty good Asian swing.  Ebden took the first set against Simon easily, 6-2.  Simon returned the favor in set 2 with a 6-2 set of his own.  Naturally, the third set had to go to tiebreak and Ebden won this 10-8 in the tiebreak for his most successful tournament ever.  Pat Rafter should be thrilled.  With an aging Lleyton Hewitt and an up-and-coming Bernard Tomic, it might be nice to have another Aussie that’s playing good tennis to be a third player the Davis Cup captain can rely on.

Kei Nishikori may not have done well in his home tournament in Tokyo, but he’s doing pretty well at Shanghai.  He’s had three solid wins beating Robin Haase in the first round, upsetting Tsonga in the second, and then having perhaps the “easiest” match against Santiago Giraldo.  Nonetheless, the two players did go three sets with Nishikori taking the third set, 6-3.  Nishikori will play Alex Dolgopolov next.

Dolgopolov found himself in a weird match.  If you only look at the last two sets, you would think he dominated Tomic.  Tomic won the first set 7-5, then won only one more game the rest of the way.  Perhaps Tomic just faded badly, either an injury or worse, a fitness issue.

Finally, Feliciano Lopez beat Tomas Berdych, 4 and 4.

The following matches are set for the quarterfinals to be played on Friday.

  • Mayer vs. Lopez (good opportunity for both–can Mayer follow up a big win?)
  • Ferrer vs Roddick (Roddick is hitting the ball pretty well, but good enough against Ferrer who struggled today?)
  • Dolgopolov vs. Nishikori (a great opportunity for both, esp. Nishikori hoping for a nice run)
  • Murray vs. Ebden (can the big hitting Aussie bother the Scot?  The answer is probably no)

Today, 4 of the top 8 seeds lost including top seed, Rafael Nadal.  Only Murray and Ferrer are left from the top 8.