Andy Murray was sterling in victory over American Steve Johnson 6-3 6-2 in the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters. The 2nd seed broke in the sixth game for a 4-2 lead and had little trouble winning the opening set. The second set was more of the same as Murray broke twice to win the set 6-2 and advance to the 3rd round against Lucas Pouille. The 13th seeded Frenchman defeated Nicolas Almagro 6-4 7-6 (10), saving three set points in the second set breaker.
Elsewhere, 3rd seed Stan Wawrinka cruised past Kyle Edmund 6-3 6-4. The reigning U.S. Open champion needed just a single break to win the first set, getting it in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead. After a quick start to the second set that saw the Swiss superstar take a 2-0 lead, Edmund broke back for 2-2 only to see Wawrinka break for a 5-4 lead and serve out the match.
Viktor Troicki caused the biggest shock of the day with a straight sets upset of 4th seed Rafael Nadal 6-3 7-6 (3). At 3-3 all in the opening set, Troicki broke in back-to-back games to run out the first set while the second set saw no breaks of serve. In the tiebreak, Troicki engineered 3 minibreaks for a 5-2 lead and cruised to the upset from there. After the match, the Serb, who had never defeated the Spaniard in five previous meetings, spoke about his impressive win: “I played really well,” said Troicki. “I was aggressive, I served well, I hit the ball nice. It was a great feeling on the court playing like this and playing like this against Rafa Nadal, who is a great champion. It makes it extra special to beat him for the first time, especially in such a big tournament like Shanghai. I’m really glad how I played. Happy how I played. I hope I will continue to do that in the next rounds.”
Other results saw 5th seed Milos Raonic dispatch of Paolo Lorenzi 6-2 6-4, while Marcel Granollers stunned Tomas Berdych 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1). 11th seed David Goffin recovered nicely from his opening round battle with Juan Martin Del Potro to take care of Benoit Paire, winning 6-1 7-6 (0) while 12th seed Nick Kyrgios was shocked by qualifier Mischa Zverev 6-3, 6-1.
15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut saved all 7 break points against him for a 6-4, 6-4 win over American Taylor Fritz. Gilles Simon took care of local wild card Di Wu 6-2 6-2 while Vasek Pospisil scored an impressive 7-5 7-6 (2) win over a surging Grigor Dimitrov. The Canadian is feeling good after his victory: “I played very well,” said Pospisil. “It was important to play a very clean match today, because Grigor is playing with a lot of confidence right now. It was a great win for me. It’s been a tough year. Quite a few things were going on. But I feel really happy to be back. I feel like my old self on the court again. My head’s in the game and I’m playing well.” Jack Sock also moved into the third round with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Feliciano Lopez.
The third round matchups see Djokovic facing Pospisil, Mischa Zverev facing off with Granollers, Troicki against Bautista Agut, 9th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga meets Alexander Zverev, Raonic against Sock, Simon challenging Wawrinka, Monfils takes on Goffin while Pouille and Murray battle. The winners advance to the quarterfinals.
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