General / Ralph Ellis / 12 October 2010 /

The world number four wants to collect valuable ranking points in China but Ralph Ellis is concered by his demeanour and believes an ambitious newcomer could add more disapppointment to an up and down season.

Shanghai, according to Andy Murray's Twitter feed, is "such a cool place, one of the best places to come on the tour." You just hope he's going to be able to stick around long enough to enjoy it.

Britain's number one might not need a reminder that nothing can be taken for granted, but he's got one anyway. Expecting to face Radek Stepanek in his first match of the Shanghai Masters in the second round tomorrow, he's now got to prepare for the relatively unknown Chinese number four player Yan Bai.

Bai, currently ranked 465 in the world and only playing in the tournament thanks to a generous wild card, produced one of the performances of his young life to knock out the experienced Czech Republic man, some 435 places above him, in straight sets early this morning. And while that should be good news for Murray, who missed this event last year and so has the opportunity to reinforce his own status as world number four by picking up some points, it could also represent a very large and slippery banana skin.

Everything about the young Scot's attitude as he comes to the end of what's been a troubled season seems wrong. He might be 'tweeting' all the right things about his progress on tour, but the accounts coming from China suggest his demeanour tells a different story. There's a small group of English writers who earn their living following Murray around the world, and not surprisingly they all love him to bits. He's their meal ticket, after all. So when they start sending back missives to the British papers, as they have done this morning, suggesting he looks pale, ill and disinterested it is time to worry.

Murray is [8.8] in the betting for the Shanghai Masters, one of only four given a serious chance by Betfair's punters of winning the near £400,000 first prize. But he's been in such a mess lately, that seems ridiculously short and very safe to lay and collect a bit of easy profit.

Beaten by Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic in the quarter-finals in Beijing last week, it's not even certain at the moment that he'll qualify for next month's ATP World Tour finals, potentially deriving the big end of season bash at the O2 Arena of one of its headline stars. Murray has still to settle on a permanent coach, has to make more decisions about how he reconstructs his back-up team, and just gives the air of a man who isn't enjoying what he does any more.

Contrast that to world number one Rafael Nadal, who collected his seventh title of the season in Tokyo and went straight to the practice courts in China where he was surrounded by hundreds of screaming girls. He's [3.2] favourite to win this week, in sharp contrast to how he finished last season tired and struggling to cope with his injury prone knees. This time he's learned to manage that condition and could end the campaign with the biggest points lead in the history of the rankings system.

There was a time when it seemed Britain's number one could challenge Nadal for the world's top spot. That prospect is growing ever fainter. Murray might consider Shanghai to be 'cool' but at the moment the pressure on him is getting hotter.

Five things you might not know about Yan Bai

1. Born May 1989 in Nanjing, the second largest city in East China after Shanghai

2. He started playing tennis at the age of six, and became Hong Kong junior champion

3. He also won the Asian junior championships, but was still an amateur when he represented China at the 2008 Olympics even though he became the country's number one later that year

4. Away from the courts he's into reading and computer games

5. He's coached by Desmond Tyson, who once worked with Australian doubles specialist Todd Woodbridge

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