Murray, Nadal, Nishikori in Round 3 at Rogers Cup
Briton Andy Murray, seeded second at the tournament, beat Spain’s Tommy Robredo 6-4, 7-5 at the Rogers Cup in Canada yesterday. The world no. 3 faced the Spaniard after a first-round bye at the tournament. He previously bowed out in Round 1 of the recently concluded Citi Open after a loss to world no. 53 Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia.
While the pair were initially due to face off on Tueday, play was suspended at 4-4 following heavy rain. They returned to play the following day, with Murray recovering after he was a break down in the second set.
Murray will now play Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller, currently ranked 46th. Muller is unseeded at this tournament, but has already beat world no. 15 Gael Monfils of France.
Japan’s Kei Nishikori, who won the men’s singles at the recently concluded Citi Open, kept the momentum going as he beat Spain’s Pablo Andujar in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. Nishikori, who will next play 14th ranked David Goffin of Belgium, will look to secure a win ahead of the upcoming U.S. Open later this month.
Nishikori was a finalist at last year’s U.S. Open, taking second after his loss to Croatia’s Marin Cilic, who the Japanese player beat at the Citi Open.
“I'm going to try to go to the final again, but I know it's a new U.S. Open this year," the Japanese star said in a press conference. "Just playing one match at a time and trying to focus from first match, and see what I can do again."
Eighth-seeded Rafael Nadal, fresh off winning the singles title at the Hamburg Open following a victory over Italy’s Fabio Fognini, beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 7-6 (4), 6-3 to progress to the next round of the tournament.
He will next play Russian Mikhail Youzhny, who routed ninth-seed Gilles Simon of France in a 6-1, 6-4 victory.
Third-seeded Stan Wawrinka retired from his match against Nick Kyrgios with a back injury, and Jack Sock of the U.S.A beat Russian Grigor Dimitrov to face off against world no. 1 and top-seed Novak Djokovic in the next round of the tournament.