Tough day for Canadians in Shanghai as Raonic, Pospisil and Nestor all lose

The quality that separates the very best from the rest in tennis is their ability to bring their very best week after week. It is the most difficult thing to do, with the physical nature of the game, and the global travel.

So after a grueling, successful week in Tokyo, Canadian Milos Raonic arrived at a much bigger tournament, the Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, with a virus and a fever.

From a standing-room only crowd in Tokyo against home-country favorite Kei Nishikori in the final Sunday, he entered a virtually empty Grandstand court in Shanghai against wild card Juan Monaco of Argentina three days later determined to give it a go. But he was a shadow of his usual self. After five games, down 2-5 in the first set, Raonic called it a day.

The first clue came when Raonic couldn't break 200 km/h with his serve in his opening game. That's when the Canadian typically fires his hardest serves of the match, to set the tone. There was no energy, and he clearly had no legs. After firing four unforced errors to hand Mónaco the 5-2 lead, he shook hands.

Nishikori wasn't much better off; the Tokyo champion lost in straight sets to American Jack Sock in his first match in Shanghai.

Raonic was just the start of the Canadian carnage in Shanghai.

Countryman Vasek Pospisil lost two tough ones – 7-6 (1), 3-6, 6-4 to No. 14 seed Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain in the second round of the singles, and 2-6, 6-3 {11-9} in the second round of the doubles to the pickup doubles team of Rohan Bopanna of India and Florin Mergea of Romania.

Both veterans of the doubles circuit, Bopanna and Mergea have had success individually, but this was the first time they paired up. They had enough to defeat Pospisil and Wimbledon partner Sock, who will have just one more opportunity to play together to cement a spot in the year-end championships in London in November.

On the plus side for them, their closest rivals for the spot, Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Lukasz Kubot of Poland, were defeated by the No. 1 seeded Bryan brothers later on Wednesday.

To complete the Canadian day, No. 2 seeds Daniel Nestor and partner Nenad Zimonjic also lost their first match in Shanghai, 7-6 (6), 6-2 to Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.

Raonic's coach had this to say on Twitter:

For Raonic, his untimely illness leaves a lot of ranking points on the table in relation to his own quest to qualify for the ATP Tour finals.

His closest competitors – Tomas Berdych (one spot ahead at No. 7), Andy Murray and David Ferrer all advanced to the third round in Shanghai on Wednesday.

Berdych put a little more daylight between himself and Raonic with his victory. With one more victory, Murray wlll drop Raonic down to No. 9. Two more rounds in this tournament, and Ferrer would pass the Canadian as well.

Here is the race to London as it currently stands, Wednesday's results included:

No. 7 Tomas Berdych  3855 points

No. 8 Milos Raonic      3785 points

No. 9 Andy Murray       3755 points

No. 10 David Ferrer      3625 points

The good news for Raonic is that, as it happens, Murray and Ferrer will meet in the third round in Shanghai, so only one of the two will have the opportunity to do any damage.

Raonic's schedule has him returning to Europe – a little earlier than planned – for three events in which he can earn points before the final eight are determined. He is scheduled to play next week in Moscow (a 250-level event, meaning the champion earns 250 points), a 500-level tournament in Roger Federer's hometown of Basel, Switzerland and then the final Masters 1000 tournament in Paris.

Raonic will be the top seed, and the only top-10 player, in Moscow.

His rivals have surprisingly sparse schedules through the next two weeks. None are entered in any of the three ATP Tour events next week (Moscow, Stockholm, Vienna); Ferrer is the only one of the three scheduled for the following week, at his hometown tournament in Valencia, Spain.

Tournament directors will surely be at the ready awaiting phone calls inquiring about wild cards.

In fact, Moscow tournament director Yevgeny Kafelnikov was wondering the same thing on Twitter.

All the contenders will automatically be entered in the Paris event, which will take place from Oct. 7 through Nov. 2.