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
2013 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles final two players had been heavily favoured to meet in the final following the early round defeats of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, among others. Novak Djokovic was the top seed despite not being the defending champion, and was going for a second title at Wimbledon after winning in 2011, whilst Andy Murray, the second seed, was going for his first title after finishing runner-up to Federer the previous year. Both players had made it through their first four matches in straight sets, and both had to overcome tough five-set matches to make the final: Murray against Fernando Verdasco