Andy Murray reached the semi-finals of the Rakuten Japan Open after entering as defending champion. He was beaten by Milos Raonic in a close three-set match. He was defending champion in the doubles with his brother Jamie. However, they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by top seeds Leander Paes and Radek Štěpánek. At the penultimate Masters 1000 tournament of the year in Shanghai, after receiving a bye into round two, Murray's first match was due to be played against Florian Mayer. However, Mayer had to pull out due to injury, giving Murray a walkover into round three. After beating Alexandr Dolgopolov
2014 Andy Murray tennis season Štěpánek in the following round, ending his 19 match win streak which stretched back to his 2012 Wimbledon final defeat to Roger Federer. Murray then attempted to become the first British man to defend a Wimbledon title since Fred Perry in 1936. He began his defence with a comfortable straight sets win over David Goffin, his 450th career win, and followed that up with an emphatic win over Blaž Rola in which he only dropped two games. His first real test was against 27th seed Roberto Bautista Agut, but the Spaniard proved no match for Murray who raced to another