Federer, Djokovic and Murray win at Shanghai Masters

Top seeds Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have cruised into the third round of the Shanghai Masters whilst defending champion Andy Murray progressed without setting foot on the court.

World number one Federer, who is battling to keep his top ranking, came out all guns blazing against Taiwanese qualifier Lu Yen-Hsun, beating him 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 20 minutes. The top seed lost only 10 points on his serve, seven of which came in the second set, and now sets up a meeting with fellow countryman Stanislas Wawrinka in the next round.

Evidence of his off court distraction of a Chinese blogger who sent a death threat to the Swiss player in the lead up to the tournament seemed to be behind him. The blogger however, who later apologized, still remains at large.

Djokovic’s ride into the third round was somewhat of a breeze overcoming Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-2 in only 54 minutes. The hard hitting Serb, who will regain the world number one ranking if he wins the tournament and Federer loses before the quarter-finals, only lost five of his service points against Dimitrov.

“Very pleased with my serving in Beijing and obviously the first match today”, the second seed said. “That’s something I’ve been working on, obviously”.

Djokovic will now play Spain’s Feliciano Lopez in the next round. The Spaniard beat German 16^th seed Philipp Kohlscreiber 6-3, 6-4.

Meanwhile, world number three and US Open champion Andy Murray didn’t even have to step foot on the court against Florian Mayer as the German withdrew with a rib injury. The Scot now plays Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov.

In other results, it was not a good day for France as several high seeded players were lost including their own 11^th and 15^th seeds Richard Gasquet and Giles Simon. Gasquet succumbed to Czech Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-4 whilst Simon was outplayed by Dolgopolov 6-3, 6-4. Other seeded players to lose included Canadian 12^th seed Miles Raonic who lost to Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in a tightly fought 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-3) contest whilst Japan’s Kei Nishikori (14^th seed), winner of last week’s Japan Open lost to USA’s Sam Querry 2-6, 6-1 6-4.

Other winners of the day included France’s number five seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who beat compatriot Benoit Paire 7-6 (9-7) 7-5, Janko Tipsarevic who also triumphed over fellow Serb Viktor Troicki 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) and German veteran Tommy Haas who beat Spain’s Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-3.

As the season enters its final stages before the final tournament of the year, the World Tour Finals in London, there are still four places up for grabs with Federer, Djokovic and Murray already qualified along with injured world number four Rafael Nadal.