Murray sees off Bai threat

Andy Murray overcame a potential banana-skin when he eased past Yan Bai of China in the second round of the Shanghai Masters.

Wildcard Bai had caused a big upset in the first round when defeating Czech veteran Radek Stepanek and posed the fourth seed some problems before Murray eventually came through 6-2 6-2.

The scoreline was unfair on the Chinese youngster, who started slowly and was soon 4-0 behind in the opening set following a series of unforced errors.

Bai showed signs of recovery by holding his next two service games, and even found himself with a break point in game eight as Murray's concentration wavered.

However, the world number four - who faces Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in the last 16 - wiped that out with an overhead smash before quickly wrapping up the game and the opening set with it.

Two early breaks gave Murray a 3-0 lead in the second set but Bai clawed back one of them with a winner down the line in the very next game.

However, the Briton regained his advantage on Bai's next service game, with the Chinese player putting a forehand wide, before holding serve to take a 5-1 lead.

He wasted a match point in game seven by hitting a forehand into the net, but eventually ended his opponent's challenge after one hour and 21 minutes on court with a neat drop shot.

"He played some good points, he was pretty quick," the Scot told Sky Sports 1. "It was definitely a good first match, I hit a lot of balls and didn't make too many mistakes.

"I have been sick a couple of times since the US Open so haven't been able to train that much. You lose a bit of strength when you're ill. That was a good start."

Meanwhile, world number two Novak Djokovic cruised into the third round with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic.

The US Open finalist won the rain-delayed China Open on Monday but showed no ill-effects as he blew away the big-serving veteran in an hour and 20 minutes.

"To be honest I starrted off really well," said the Serbian. "This is the first time I hit some balls on centre court in Shanghai.

"I'm just satisfied with the way I was returning and serving when I needed to, it was a good performance for a second round."