The first round of the 2012 Shanghai Masters is complete and that means the high seeds in the event will no longer be receiving byes to the next round. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray, the top three seeds in Shanghai, are all scheduled for second round action on Wednesday against unseeded players. Of those three players, Murray appears to have the toughest opponent directly ahead of him.
The reigning US Open champion is the defending champion in Shanghai, having won the tournament last season. He'll face World No. 25 Florian Mayer on Wednesday, a player who looks sharp following both a run to the semifinals last week in Beijing and following a first round win in Shanghai over Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-0. Murray will be looking to put a tough loss behind him from last week, where the Scot lost to Milos Raonic after failing to convert on multiple match points.
Roger Federer will face veteran Yen-Hsun Lu in the second round, the current World No. 62. There is little in Lu's recent history that suggests that he'll be putting up much of a fight against the current World No. 1. In the last four events that he has entered, Lu has lost to players ranked 30th, 124th, 87th, and 204th. Federer has been fairly idle since his US Open loss to Tomas Berdych however the Swiss Maestro did contest two matches in Davis Cup play in September, both of them straight sets victories against talented players in Thiemo de Bakker and Robin Haase.
Djokovic has a tricky match coming up against Grigor Dimitrov. The 21-year old Bulgarian's "Ambition is to be World No. 1" (according to ATP profile page) and based on a stellar junior career, he could be heading for the top of men's tennis - in the long term. But at present, Dimitrov is still ranked just 56th in the world and he's not putting up results that would command the attention of a top five player like Djokovic. Dimitrov has only one win against a top 20 player this season and Djokovic, whose ambition is to be World No. 1 again before the end of the 2012 season, shouldn't be troubled on Wednesday.
Djokovic's match is second up on Stadium court from Shanghai following the Tomas Berdych vs. Andreas Seppi encounter (2pm CST). Murray will face Mayer not before 6pm and then Federer will face Lu in the late match (not before 8pm).