PETE ZIEBRON
World #4 Andy Murray Pete Ziebron Images
Andy Murray raced through Roger Federer to win his 6th Masters 1000 at the Shanghai Rolex Masters today. Murray did not drop a set during the week and saved all 6 break points in the Final, defeating Federer 6-3 6-2 in only 85 minutes.
- With the win, Murray improves to 6-1 in Masters 1000 Finals, 16-8 in career Finals and an impressive 8-5 against Federer.
The victory is only the second of the year for Murray and his first also came against Federer, ironically in another Masters 1000 Final in Toronto in August. Last year Murray won a career-best 6 ATP titles.
Despite the loss, Federer will regain the world #2 ranking from Novak Djokovic, whom he defeated in the Shanghai semifinals. Federer played magnificent tennis during the week, besting rivals John Isner, Robin Soderling and Djokovic in the process. In the victory over Soderling in the quarterfinals, Federer dropped yielded just 2 games and won the match in 53 minutes. Today however, Federer allowed Murray to get into several points and as a result, Murray kept driving the ball to Federer's backhand to win the key points of the match.
ATP Asian Swing Roundup
Rafael Nadal committed to a lighter ATP schedule in 2010 so it was a surprise that he decided to play for 3 consecutive weeks in Asia. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez topped Nadal in the PTT Thailand semifinals in Bangkok and went on to win the tournament defeating Jarrko Niemenen, becoming the 8th Spaniard to win an ATP title in 2010. Concurrently, Mikhail Youzhny topped Andrey Golubev at the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lampur.
Following Garcia-Lopez and Youzhny's wins in the 250 tournaments, the ATP tour graduated to the 500 level and meandered through Asia for the China Open in Beijing and the Rakuten Japan Open in Tokyo. In Beijing, Novak Djokovic defeated David Ferrer and would then continue to play spectacular tennis before falling to Federer in the Shanghai semifinals. Nadal beat Gael Monfils in the Tokyo Final and then suffered a surprising loss in the 3rd round in Shanghai to lefty Jurgen Melzer.
The earlier than expected departure for Nadal in Shanghai marked the first time that he failed to make at least the quarterfinals of a Masters 1000 event in 2010. Earlier this year, Nadal swept the Masters 1000 clay events in Monte-Carlo, Rome and Madrid, reached the semifinals at Indian Wells, Miami and Toronto and was a quarterfinalist in Cincinnati.
The ATP Tour returns to Europe next week featuring a pair of 250 tournaments, the Kremlin Cup in Moscow and the IF Stockholm Open.
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