Chasing No.3

So we are into another week of the men's ATP tour, which now takes us to the Shanghai Masters, where Andy Murray is the defending champion, but he can hold onto his title???  We will find out soon enough.

In the meantime, here are some results from the tournament so far this week, starting with Rafa who made a shock exit in the 3rd round as he took on the talented Florian Mayer, who defeated the former Wold No.1 in straight sets 7-6, 6-3.  This was a real surprise as I'm sure most of us didn't expect that to happen, especially after playing a solid match the other day against Fernando Garcia-Lopez.  But it definitely once again echoes the troubles that Rafa is having this year, and I think this all mainly boils down to one player, Novak Djokovic, who has knocked Rafa off his World No.1 spot having beaten him six times already this year, and with Andy soundly beating Rafa in the 3rd set 6-0 of the Tokyo final last week probably added salt to the wound.  And this is the second time Rafa has made an early exit in a tournament this year as he did before in Cincinnati, so it is safe to say that 2011 hasn't been too kind to him.  Despite all that though if you look at his stats he hasn't had a bad year, having won the French Open, and titles in Barcelona and Monte Carlo, but playing second fiddle to Djokovic certainly hasn't helped his confidence.

In other matches, Feliciano Lopez put in a really good performance against Tomas Berdych, whom he best in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.  Also Gilles Simon was put out by the Australian wildcard Matthew Ebden who will now go on to face Andy in the quarter finals, as I don't know much about Ebden its hard to say how it could go, but it could be a tough one.  In another match David Ferrer not only defeated Juan Carlos-Ferrero, but he also qualified for 5th place in the ATP World Tour Finals at the end of Novmeber in London O2 arena.  Who qualifies next for it, is anybody's guess as Tsonga and Fish were both up for qualifying also but they have both been knocked out of Shanghai already, which might dent their chances a bit more, but we'll see.

So onto Muzza's match as he took on the Swiss Stan Wawrinka, who defeated Andy in their last meeting at the US Open last year, but this time Andy got revenge as he toughed it out to win in 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.  This marks that he has won 22 out of the last 23 matches, and he maintains his perfect record so far in the Asian leg of the tour, so it remains to be seen if the Muzza can go all the way and seize that World No.3 ranking.  And judging by his current form it is looking likely, and he is now the top seed in the tournament, not only that but he has been playing really well and to his ranking.  But there are three matches to go before he can lift that trophy, but he is the odds on favourite, so we will see how his match with Matthew Ebden goes.  But it would be great Andy could keep up this form going into the O2 Arena in London at the end of this year, but by then Djokovic will most likely be back in action, so we need to wait for that one.

Anyhoooowww that's it for now, more will follow soon.