Murray, Djokovic into Shanghai Masters third round

It was also notable how much more aggressively Nadal tried to play against Djokovic, a tactic which should serve him well on the faster hard courts of Shanghai.

But still floating outside the top four, his draw as he arrived for the Shanghai Rolex Masters was far from easy. But I won by one point at the end for a double-fault of him, and with the good points of me with my serve on the tiebreak.

The quarter-finals then threatened No4 seed Stan Wawrinka, who had won their last two matches, though he had the not insignificant hurdle of Marin Cilic lined up for the third round.

There was only one seeded upset on Wednesday, but many near-misses as four of the Top 10-seeded players in action in addition to Nadal needed three sets to advance.

This year, Nadal starts his campaign against Ivo Karlovic – the giant Croatian who just officially broke Goran Ivanisevic’s record for most career aces (records are admittedly spotty) – and despite his flawless record against Karlovic, Nadal won’t need any warnings to be wary: Karlovic, after all, is one of the few men to have beaten Djokovic in 2015, doing so at the first event of the year in Doha in January. “Probably one of the best games return in my career”.

“The court plays a little bit quicker during the day”, Murray said of facing Isner. The real thing is he played so well the first set, the first game, too.

Former world No. 1 and Shanghai No. 8 seed Rafael Nadal narrowly avoided an early exit on Wednesday at the Shanghai Masters, edging unseeded Ivo Karlovic 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-6(6) to move into the round of 16. The only negative thing was the first game of the match.

“In terms of level of concentration and attitude and control of my emotions, it was a fantastic match”. “That’s because I was on self -control again of my emotions”.

Murray, another two-time victor at Shanghai’s Qi Zhong Stadium, also zipped past Steve Johnson 6-2, 6-4 and French Open champion Wawrinka beat Viktor Troicki 7-6(3), 6-3.

“Probably”, said Djokovic, the 10-time major victor, after crushing Martin Klizan 6-2, 6-1 to extend his winning streak to 13 matches. The eighth seed, who is yet to win an ATP 1000 title this year, will next take on No. 9 seed Milos Raonic, after the Canadian battled past Nadal’s Spanish compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5).

In 2014, he lost his opening match to Feliciano Lopez, but again there were mitigating factors – Nadal had just been diagnosed with appendix problems that would lead him to close down his season shortly afterwards to undergo surgery.