Viktor Troicki overcame Rafael Nadal on Wednesday evening 6-3 7-6(3) to advance into the third round at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
The Serbian broke in the seventh game of the first set to take a 4-3 lead and continued his big serving to take the first set 6-3. Troicki then dominated the second set tiebreak to take the match in 1 hour and 34 minutes. The win means it is his first win over Nadal in six attempts. Nadal couldn’t create one break point opportunity as he was condemned to his 15th loss of the season. He will now fall outside the world’s top five in next week’s rankings.
After the match, Nadal admitted his season is almost over “For me the season is almost over, and I accept that, I cannot say now what I gonna do during the next month. I’m not sure about my calendar”. The Spaniard will now discuss with his team what the next step is.
However for Troicki he advances to the third round where he will play 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut who beat Taylor Fritz today 6-4 6-4. Agut converted 20% of his break point opportunities on his way to victory over the young American.
In other results, Andy Murray cruised past Steve Johnson 6-3 6-2, to advance to the third round in Shanghai. Murray, who won Beijing last week, was in determined mood as he won 14 out of his 20 returns on the second serve. Johnson had no answer as Murray completed the win in under 1 hour and 15 minutes. Murray said after the match “I felt like I was creating a lot of chances on his serve. I thought I moved well for the first match in new conditions.”
The Scotsman will now play Lucas Pouille in the third round after the 13th seed beat Nicolas Almagro 6-4 7-6(10). The Frenchman won 83% of his first serve points as he won a tight battle with the veteran Spaniard. Murray and Pouille have met once before, where the Scotsman cruised to a 6-2 6-1 win in the Rome semifinals.
Finally Vasek Pospisil came through a tight match against Grigor Dimitrov 7-5 7-6(2). Pospisil, who is now ranked outside the world’s top 100, will now play world number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic tomorrow.
