Tennis: Nishikori crashes out, Murray gets walkover

Top three move into third round of Shanghai Masters.

SHANGHAI: History-making Kei Nishikori was dumped out of the Shanghai Masters yesterday by American Sam Querrey while defending champion Andy Murray was handed a walkover into the third round.

The tall American recovered from losing the first set to seal a 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Nishikori, who made history on Sunday by becoming the first Japanese player to win the Japan Open.

“I tried to play but he had a good serve,” said Nishikori. “I broke him first in the third set but couldn’t finish the match. It’s disappointing but I was close to win with this injury. Nothing I can do.”

Also in second-round action, second-seed Novak Djokovic cruised through his opener and there were wins for fourth-seed Tomas Berdych and 13th-seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland. Djokovic, who has a shot at regaining the world number one ranking if he wins the title and Federer loses before the quarter-finals, dismissed Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-2. But US Open champion Andy Murray did not even have to take to the court as Germany’s Florian Mayer withdrew with a rib injury.

“I’ll practise again,” said Murray. “I mean, you never know whether it’s a good or a bad thing. I mean, you’re obviously prepared to play the match. Yeah, sometimes it happens when you get a walkover. You just need to make sure you do enough practice and stay sharp.”

Top-seed Roger Federer, playing his first tournament on the Tour since a quarter-final defeat to Berdych at the US Open, was due to take on Taiwanese qualifier Lu Yen-hsun in an evening clash.

The Swiss world number one’s build-up was clouded by a death threat from a blogger in China but the internet user, in a fresh posting, said he had apologised. A Shanghai police spokesperson yesterday declined to comment on the case.

As the season draws towards to a close there are four places still up for grabs at next month’s season-ending World Tour Finals in London. The top three have all qualified, along with the injured Rafael Nadal.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2012.