Andy Roddick became the first player to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters on Thursday after an impressive 6-3, 6-4 win over Nicolas Almagro of Spain.
Playing under the closed roof at the Qi Zhong stadium, 10th seed Roddick secured a single break in each set, wrapping up victory with his 11th ace in a controlled display that saw him make just 14 unforced errors.
The victory over the seventh seed for the 29-year-old, with one title to his name this year, comes after tougher tests in the first two rounds, where he beat Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun and Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.
Roddick said his serve had worked well after he made an adjustment in the warm-up.
“As far as the way I’ve been hitting the ball and playing, it’s been OK but the serve’s been up and down. My percentages weren’t where I wanted them to be,” he said.
“And I was going like in spots where I’d make three serves in a row, but then miss four or five. It’s those gaps where you’re hitting second serves where guys get a look.
“I cleaned that up a little bit today. I think that makes everything look a little bit better. Then you go 2-2 on breakpoints, it makes it look pretty straightforward.”
Elsewhere on Thursday, Australian teenager Bernard Tomic was beaten by 12th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-5, 1-6, 0-6.
Top seed Rafael Nadal will later face 15th seed Florian Mayer of Germany and Britain’s Andy Murray, the number two seed, plays Stanislas Wawrinka, the number 13 seed.
Impressive Roddick reaches Shanghai quarters
