Nadal, Murray Advance In Shanghai Masters

Shanghai, Oct 12: Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray advanced to the third round of the Shanghai Masters on Wednesday, although only the Spaniard had to step onto the court.

The top-seeded Nadal easily beat countryman Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-2, while Murray received a walkover when his opponent, Dmitry Tursunov of Russia, pulled out with a thigh injury before their match.

Tursunov had defeated Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil in a tough, three-set match in the first round on Tuesday.

Murray, the second seed and defending champion, hasn't played a match yet in Shanghai. He received a bye in the first round.

Earlier Wednesday, fourth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was knocked out by Japan's Kei Nishikori 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-4. The Frenchman fought off two match points with aces before hitting a backhand long to hand Nishikori the win.

The loss will hurt Tsonga's chances of claiming one of the four remaining spots in the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London. He currently sits in eighth position in the standings, the last qualifying spot.

In another second-round match, third-seeded David Ferrer of Spain defeated Canadian Milos Raonic 7-5, 7-6 (7). Raonic, who has now lost to Ferrer three times this year, had a set point in the tiebreaker, but couldn't convert.

Sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych, fresh off a win last week at the China Open in Beijing, also advanced with a 6-4, 6-3 win over fellow Czech Radek Stepanek.

Garcia-Lopez won their last meeting at the semifinals of the Thailand Open in 2010, Nadal's first tournament after capturing the U.S. Open.

After losing the first set and dropping his serve to start the second set Wednesday, Garcia-Lopez tried mixing up his game by hitting drop shots to bring Nadal into the net.

He broke Nadal's serve to level the score at 2-2, but Nadal immediately broke back with a sensational defensive point in which he got to a drop shot, chased down a lob and then hit a stab backhand volley for a winner.

Nadal plays 15th-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany in the third round, while Murray faces Stanislas Wawrinka, the 13th seed from Switzerland.

Murray's draw has opened up with the losses of Tsonga and fifth-seeded Mardy Fish, who fell to Australian Bernard Tomic on Tuesday. The highest seed remaining in his half of the draw is No. 8 Gilles Simon of France.

Tsonga appeared sluggish early in his match, spraying forehands long and allowing Nishikori to run him around the court. Although he won the first-set tiebreaker, he was broken twice and hit only four winners to drop the second set.

The 47th-ranked Nishikori, who was 1-9 against top 10-ranked players before the match, then broke Tsonga twice more in the third set to close out the match after nearly two and a half hours.

“He's really talented, especially when everything works,” Tsonga said. “Today he didn't miss one drop shot. He played really well. He returned unbelievable. I think nobody breaks me many times like this.”

American teenager Ryan Harrison, who upset 11th-seeded Viktor Troicki in the first round, lost to fellow qualifier Matthew Ebden of Australia, 6-4, 6-2. Ebden, ranked 124th, had only won eight matches on the ATP tour coming into Shanghai.

Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero rallied from a set down to beat compatriot and 16th-seeded Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

In other second-round matches, Colombia's Santiago Giraldo edged out 14th-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5), and Alexandr Dolgopolov, the 12th seed from Ukraine, defeated qualifier Albert Ramos of Spain, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. AP