Murray feels sting of rankings slip
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.You had only to look at the line-up for yesterday's final qualifying matches here at the Mutua Madrilena Masters to appreciate the quality of the field that Andy Murray and Tim Henman will be facing this week. Among those who fell at the last hurdle were Mikhail Youzhny, a US Open semi-finalist last month, and Nicolas Almagro, one of the year's leading Spaniards.
Entry and seedings for the nine Masters Series tournaments are governed by the world rankings and when the draw was made yesterday, Murray might have regretted dropping four places to No 20 after failing to win a match in his past two tournaments. The top 16 seeds here were all given byes into the second round.
With 18 of the world's top 20 in the 48-strong field (the injured Lleyton Hewitt and Radek Stepanek are the only absentees), Murray was no doubt grateful to find himself paired with a qualifier, Ivan Navarro Pastor, in the opening round. The 24-year-old Spaniard, ranked No 129 in the world, generally plays on the Challenger circuit but has won two of his last three tournaments, both on clay.
While Murray's end-of-season goal of a place in the Tennis Masters Cup is almost certainly beyond him he would probably need to win two of his next three tournaments to make the field of eight for Shanghai there are still plenty of ranking points at stake. If he wins today he will next play Ivan Ljubicic, the world No 3, who beat Fernando Gonzalez in straight sets in yesterday's Vienna indoor final.
Two more top-10 players, James Blake and Nikolay Davydenko, won their respective finals in Stockholm and Moscow. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, seeded to meet in the final here, are the only men to have secured their Shanghai places.
Henman, who was given a wild card here, was drawn to play Fernando Verdasco. The 22-year-old Spaniard won their only previous meeting, in last year's US Open. The winner meets the Spaniard David Ferrer.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments