SHANGHAI, (Reuters) – Exhausted world number one Rafa Nadal suffered a surprise 6-1 3-6 6-3 defeat by Austria’s Juergen Melzer in the third round of the Shanghai Masters yesterday, while Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray marched on.
Nadal, who won the Tokyo Open on Sunday and was playing in his third tournament back-to-back, had not lost a set to Melzer in their three previous meetings.
The crowd was left stunned yesterday as he lost that record in wretched fashion, dropping serve twice in the first set amid a series of unforced errors on his way to defeat by the 13th seed.
World number two Djokovic reached the last eight with a 6-1 6-1 victory over France’s Richard Gasquet, while 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.
“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.
“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.
