Nadal suffers surprise Shanghai defeat to Melzer
World
number one and top seed, Rafa Nadal, suffered a surprise 6-1 3-6 6-3
defeat by 13th seed Juergen Melzer of Austria in the third round of the
Shanghai Masters on Thursday.
Nadal, who won the
Tokyo Open on Sunday and was playing in his third back-back tournament,
had never lost a set to Melzer in their three previous meetings. “This
isn’t a surprise for me. I didn’t play well. I felt slow on court and I
made more mistakes than usual,” the Spaniard told reporters. “In
general, I am a little bit more tired than usual, physically and
mentally. You can’t expect to win every week. All the good work is done
for me for the year.”
But world number
two Novak Djokovic hammered home his intent of winning back-to-back
titles with a 6-1 6-1 victory over France’s Richard Gasquet to reach
the last eight of the Shanghai Masters on Thursday. Britain’s Andy
Murray secured his place at the ATP season-ender in London next month
with a routine 6-3 6-4 win over another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy,
following a recent dip in form. “I didn’t get broken today. I served a
lot into his forehand and varied the serve, which helped,” said Murray,
who lost in the quarter-finals of the China Open last week.
The fourth seed will next meet France’s Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, who
celebrated wildly after beating German Florian Mayer 7-5 6-3. Serb
Djokovic produced a scorching display against Gasquet that was likely
to be watched closely by the other top seeds including Rafa Nadal and
Roger Federer who play later. “I did really well from the start. I put
pressure on him. I was aggressive and I knew I had to be,” said the
U.S. Open runner-up who secured his 18th career title at the China Open
on Monday. Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez also advanced after beating
seventh seed Czech Tomas Berdych 7-6 6-3.
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