Only seven out of the sixteen seeded players have taken their appointed places in the round of 16 as the more fancied players were victims of rustiness due to inactivity since Wimbledon. However the former champions Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Rafel Nadal and the defending champion Jo Wilfred Tsonga have survived the upset bug and will be in action on Thursday at the Roger’s Cup in Montreal, Canada.

Andy Murray resumed his round of 32 match against the Spanish veteran Tommy Robredo which was suspended by rain on Tuesday and won comfortably 6-4, 7-5, while Nadal dispatched the Russian Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-6(4),6-3 despite failing to serve out both the sets at the first attempt. The Washington D.C. winner Kei Nishikori of Japan was too strong for the Spaniard Pablo Andujar winning 6-3,6-3, while John Isner the loosing finalist last week had to battle hard against the local favourite Vasek Pospisil before prevailing 7-6(1),4-6,6-3.

Tsonga too came from behind to beat another Spanuard Roberto Bautista Agut before prevailing 5-7,7-6(6),7-5. The only other seed winning on Wednesday was David Goffin of Belgium who put out the American Sam Querrey 6-4,6-4. The top seed Novak Djokovic and Ivo Karlovic had already advanced on Tuesday.

The third seeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka conceded his match due to a back injury trailing 0-4 in the decider after splitting the first two sets to the temperamental Australian Nick Kyrgios. The two were involved in a sledging match and at one point Kyrgios crossed the line as he commented on Wawrinka’s personal matters. Tomas Berdych also fell to the American left hander Donald Young 6-7(5), 3-6. Another American Jack Sock accounted for the hapless Bulgarian Grigor Dmitrov 5-7,7-6(5),7-5 despite serving 10 double faults. The reigning U.S. Open Marin Cilic of Croatia also fell to another Australian Bernard Tomic 3-6,4-6.

A pair of qualifiers also advanced as Mikhail Youzhny upset the Frenchman Giles Simon 6-1,6-4 while the Latvian Ernests Gulbis beat the last remaining Czech Lukas Rosol 3-6,7-6(8),6-1. Youzhny has slipped to 107 in the rankings with a 6-18 record for the year while Gulbis is now ranked 87 entering the tournament with a 5-17 record for the year. Jeremy Chardy beat the Argentine Leonardo Mayer 4-6,7-6(4),6-2. Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller completes the line up as he put out the enigmatic Gael Monfils 6-3,3-6,7-6(4).

The line up for the round of 16 matches with my pick mentioned first is as under :-

Novak Djokovic (1) v. Jack Sock
Donald Young v. Ernests Gulbis
John Isner (16) v. Nick Kyrgios
Ivo Karlovic v. Jeremy Chardy
Rafael Nadal (7) v. Mikhail Youzhny
Kei Nishikori (4) v. David Goffin (13)
Jo Wilfred Tsonga (10) v. Bernard Tomic
Andy Murray (2) v. Gilles Muller

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy.You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]