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
2008 Wimbledon Championships – Day-by-day summaries caused his retirement in the singles earlier in the day. In the women's doubles competition, French Open mixed doubles champion Victoria Azarenka & partner Shahar Pe'er proceeded to the next round. In the men's singles, Queen's Club champion, 2006 and 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Rafael Nadal scored his first win, securing a second round spot along with Jarkko Nieminen, Nicolas Kiefer, Tommy Robredo, Richard Gasquet, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Radek Štěpánek, Gilles Simon, Nicolás Almagro, Mikhail Youzhny, James Blake, two-time finalist Andy Roddick, and twelfth seed Andy Murray, who overcame 'The Magician' Fabrice Santoro 6–3, 6–4, 7–6(5), in little more than two hours,