Djokovic cruises into last eight at Shanghai Masters

Shanghai: Second seed Novak Djokovic served well and barely broke a sweat as he marched past Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters tennis on Thursday.

The world No 2 from Serbia, who last week won the China Open in Beijing, served 12 aces and lost seven points on his serve to continue his rich vein of form.

“I’m trying to enjoy the efficiency of my serve,” Djokovic said. “I’m not very well known around the tour for big serving. But so far in this tournament, and also in Beijing, it has been working very well for me. It has been giving me a lot of free points, a lot of confidence in the matches.”

Defending champion Andy Murray, who had a bye in the first round and a walkover in the second, also had an easy outing against Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov and won 6-2, 6-2 in under an hour.

Big-serving American John Isner, seeded No 8, hit 17 aces to Radek Stepanek’s four but the Czech still managed to eke out a 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 victory to set up a quarter-final date with third seed Murray.

Fourth seed Tomas Berdych battled past American Sam Querrey 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4 in two hours 13 minutes to keep alive his hopes of qualifying for November’s season-ending World Tour finals in London.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, seeded fifth, also remained on course for London by defeating Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-2, 7-6 (7/2).

“I feel like I’m playing a really good level,” Tsonga said. “I played great. I think I [have] improved my game a bit these last couple of months.

“I’ve worked a lot. It’s only now that I have started to play well, so I hope I will continue to play like this.”

Federer was also scheduled for third-round action on Thursday, where a win for the Swiss 17-time Grand Slam champion would guarantee a 300th week in his career as the top-ranked player.

“I’m obviously excited,” said Federer, who was set to meet compatriot and 13th seed Stanislas Wawrinka. “It’s a big number, even though 299 or 300 doesn’t make a big difference for me. It’s obviously a big match for me.”

Even if Federer were to lose, he will remain at No 1 after this week if Djokovic does not win the title in China.

As the season enters its final few weeks, Federer, Djokovic, Murray and the injured Rafael Nadal have already qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals. There are four places still up for grabs.

Meanwhile, Indian tennis’ doubles pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna moved into the quarter-finals on Wednesday. The seventh seeds defeated American-British unseeded pair of Treat Huey and Jonathan Marray 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 in one hour and 16 minutes.

The Indians, who got a first round bye, will next face the winners of the Tomas Berdych-Nenad Zimonjic and second seeds Max Miryni-Daniel Nestor clash.