Andy Murray lost in the second round to South African Kevin Anderson. However, the following week, he won the 2011 Western & Southern Open after Novak Djokovic retired due to injury. At the 2011 US Open, Murray battled from two sets down to win a five-set second-round encounter with Robin Haase, but lost in the semi-finals to Rafael Nadal in four sets. Murray easily won the small 250-class Thailand Open, and the following week he won his third title in four tournaments at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships. His opponent in the final was Rafael Nadal, whom he beat for the
2011 Australian Open record breaking as it was the largest amount of spectators to have attended on one day. The men's and women's singles draw of the 2011 Australian Open seeded the top thirty-two players who were not injured. The seeds were set on the ranking system's that the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women's Tennis Association use; so the top thirty-two players seeded were the top thirty-two players according to their rankings. Tennis Australia awarded eight wildcards for the men's and women's professional singles competitions. Former Australian Grand Slam champions, Pat Rafter and Todd Woodbridge helped to select the four discretionary