The advantage of playing top singles players in doubles events on the ATP circuit is that there is always the strong possibility of a walkover victory.
And so it proved for fifth-seeded South African Wesley Moodie and Belgium's Dick Norman as they progressed to the quarter-finals in the R25-million Shanghai Masters tournament on Wednesday after the potentially powerful Spanish combination of Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez pulled out of the doubles after gruelling singles games earlier in the day.
Verdasco, the seventh seed in the singles, was upset 6-4 7-6 (6) by resurgent Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic and Lopez, in contrast, accounted for 16th-seeded David Ferrer 4-6 7-5 6-1.
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And on a steamy Shanghai afternoon that was quite enough action for the Spanish doubles combination, who surrendered to Moodie and Norman without as much as striking a ball in anger.
The path of Moodie and Norman into the quarter-finals has hardly been a rocky one, with the South African-Belgian duo earlier receiving a bye into the second round.
But these hollow successes, nevertheless, are of crucial importance to Moodie and Norman as they pile up the points in an attempt to qualify for the ATP's World Tour Finals in London next month.
Presently placed seventh among ATP doubles combinations, Moodie and Norman are well-positioned to feature among the top eight qualifiers in the major season-ending tournament in London.
And they could well improve their claims in the Shanghai quarter-finals when they come up against Austria's Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer.
In contrast to Moodie's rousing successes since terminating his tour partnership with Jeff Coetzee, his South African Davis Cup team-mate has experienced a nightmarish slide in fortunes.
The Moodie-Coetzee pairing reached the ATP World Tour finals last year, but Coetzee's downward slide continued in Shanghai when he lost 4- 6 6-3 11-9 in the first round while partnered by Australian Stephen Huss in the first round against Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley.
Coetzee has now won only three of his last 12 tournament doubles games and not won more than a single match in any tournament since the mid-year Wimbledon Championships. - Sapa
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