Nadal Upset; Roddick Moves On at LinesMaker

Nadal Upset; Roddick Moves On

Updated Oct 13, 2011 11:28 AM ET

SHANGHAI

Rafael Nadal was upset by Flo­rian Mayer, 7–6 (5), 6–3 Thurs­day at the Shang­hai Mas­ters, the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year he’s failed to reach the quar­ter­fi­nals at the tournament.

Andy Rod­dick advanced with a 6–3, 6–4 win over Spain’s Nico­las Alma­gro. Rod­dick had 11 aces and 23 win­ners to beat the seventh-seeded Almagro.

Rod­dick will play third-seeded David Fer­rer, who saved three match points against Juan Car­los Fer­rero in a 1–6, 7–5, 6–2 win.

Mayer pres­sured Nadal at the net through­out the match, win­ning 21 of his 29 approaches.

Nadal saved two set points while serv­ing at 4–5 in the first, but then gave away sev­eral cru­cial points in the tiebreaker, which Mayer clinched with an ace.

Mayer got the first break of the match at 3–3 in the sec­ond set when Nadal hit a shot into the top of the net. He con­verted another break on match point, run­ning down a drop shot and flick­ing it past Nadal at the net.

The top-seeded Spaniard lost in the third round in Shang­hai last year to Austria’s Jur­gen Melzer, just a few weeks after win­ning his first U.S. Open title.

It’s also just the sec­ond time in 16 tour­na­ments this year that he has failed to make the quar­ter­fi­nals. In August, he fell in the sec­ond round of the Cana­dian Open to Croatia’s Ivan Dodig.

Defend­ing cham­pion Andy Mur­ray held off a late rally by Switzerland’s Stanis­las Wawrinka to advance to the quar­ter­fi­nals with a 6–4, 3–6, 6–3 victory.

After drop­ping the sec­ond set, the second-seeded Scot broke Wawrinka twice to take a 5–0 lead in the third. But Wawrinka bat­tled back to take the next three games before Mur­ray finally closed it out.

“The first set I was up 3–0, two breaks, pretty quickly, and I went up 5–0 in the third set. Both sets got a lit­tle bit closer than maybe they needed to be,” Mur­ray said.

Rod­dick is try­ing to fin­ish his sea­son on a pos­i­tive note after strug­gling with injuries, crash­ing out in the third round of Wimbledon.

After reach­ing the quar­ter­fi­nals of the U.S. Open last month, Rod­dick fell in the first round of the China Open in Bei­jing and bris­tled at a ques­tion from a reporter about whether he was con­tem­plat­ing retirement.

His play against the 11th-ranked Alma­gro sug­gested retire­ment may be some way off: He won 91 per­cent of points on his first serve — 32 of 35 points — and cap­tured 10 of 12 points at net. He never faced a break point.

France’s Gilles Simon, the No. 8 seed, was beaten by Matthew Ebden, a qual­i­fier from Aus­tralia ranked 124th, 6–2, 2–6, 7–6 (8). Ebden, who had only won eight matches on the ATP tour before Shang­hai, closed it out on his fifth match point.

Ebden plays Mur­ray next for a spot in the semifinals.

“It will be a tough match,” Mur­ray said. “He’s obvi­ously just com­ing off the best win of his career, so he’ll be confident.”

Alexandr Dol­go­polov dropped the first set against Aus­tralian teenager Bernard Tomic, then reeled off 12 of the last 13 games to win, 5–7, 6–1, 6–0. Kei Nishikori con­tin­ued his good run — he stopped Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the sec­ond round — by beat­ing San­ti­ago Giraldo 7–6 (6), 4–6, 6–3.

Related Posts:

• Many Moves Wait­ing on Pujols’ Decision
• Nadal Ral­lies to Give Spain Davis Cup
• Nadal Wins to Give Spain Davis Cup Lead
• No. 8 Hous­ton Moves to 12–0, Routs Tulsa
• Nadal to Lead Spain Against Argentina

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