Shanghai Quarterfinals

In a tournament that has often had lower ranked players go deep, this year in Shanghai the top 5 seeds are still alive, although there are two unseeded players remaining.  Federer has struggled mightily while Djokovic and Murray have cruised.  Then we have a blockbuster quarterfinal between Tsonga and Berdych.  Here are the last eight:

1) Roger Federer (SUI)
2) Novak Djokovic (SRB)
3) Andy Murray (GBR)
4) Tomas Berdych (CZE)
5) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)
10) Marin Cilic (CRO)
Tommy Haas (GER)
Radek Stepanek (CZE)
The story of the tournament so far may actually the 3 tiebreak matches -- two of them -- played.  Isner outlasted Anderson 7-6(3) 6-7(8) 7-6(7) in a match won by the tiniest of margins.  And in the same round Baghdatis upset Raonic 7-6(4) 6-7(5) 7-6(3).  Just when you think Stepanek is finally declining, he comes up with another nice result.  He reaches his first Masters quarter since he made back-to-back quarters in '09 Shanghai and Paris with wins over Hewitt, Gasquet, and Isner.  Cilic is quietly putting together a solid season with 2 titles and has made the quarters recently at the US Open and Cincinnati.  Federer lost a set to Wawrinka and then won the second in a tiebreak before beating him 6-0 in the 3rd.

Seeds losing their first matches were 7) Monaco (l. to Verdasco) and 9) Almagro (l. to Haas)

Murray, the 2-time defending champion, is the only player remaining in the draw who made the quarters last year, though several made the 3rd round.  This is partly due to the lack of names that went deep last year.
Qualifiers went 1-6 in the first round with Lu beating Ze Zhang for the only win.
Americans went 3-4 in the tournament with Isner and Querrey both reaching the third round.  Querrey beat Tokyo champ Nishikori and took a set off Berdych.  Harrison and Baker (qualifier) lost opening round matches.
There were 3 Chinese wild cards in the draw and they went 0-3.  No more home magic for Zheng.
"Tonight's" quarterfinals:
Federer vs Cilic
Murray vs Stepanek
Berdych vs Tsonga
Djokovic vs Haas
Players competing for the spots still open (the Big 4 have clinched though Nadal won't be playing) at the World Tour Finals have struggled in Shanghai as Cilic is the only player still standing of those ranked 9-16 in the points race.  Tsonga would do well to beat Berdych to solidify his spot.  Ferrer is close to clinching, and Berdych, Del Potro, and Tsonga are looking good (though the latter has a bunch of points to defend still this year).  Tipsarevic has the inside track on players like Almagro, Gasquet, Monaco, Raonic, Isner, and Cilic, who are separated by only 275 points but Almagro is 385 points behind Tipsarevic.