They then went on to defeat three seeded teams, including two former world no. 1's. The pair defeated 2012 Australian Open champions Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek, fourth seeds Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi & Jean-Julien Rojer, and 8 time Grand Slam champion Daniel Nestor & three-time Wimbledon finalist Robert Lindstedt to reach their first doubles final at a Masters 1000 tournament. In the final they faced third seeds Alexander Peya & Bruno Soares, however were defeated in straight sets, despite holding two set points in the second set. As a result of his run to the final, Murray will return to the top-100 in doubles for the first time since 2011. Murray opened his bid for a third Cincinnati title with two strong wins, defeating Russian Mikhail Youzhny and Julien Benneteau of France each in straight sets, for the loss of just 9 games between them. He then went on to meet Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals, however was unable to maintain his level of play against the Czech and went out in straight sets, the second time in a row Murray had lost to Berdych without winning a set. Murray dropped to number 3 in the rankings prior to the US Open, meaning he would potentially have to face both Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in order to defend his title. He was made to wait until the third day of play to begin his title defence, however opened strongly with a straight sets win over Frenchman Michaël Llodra. The next round proved slightly tougher, as Argentine Leonardo Mayer took him to four sets. His next match was against German Florian Mayer, whom he defeated in straight sets, winning the last two comfortably after being taken to a tiebreaker in the first. He faced Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the fourth round, who also took Murray to four sets, taking the first in a tiebreak before Murray upped his level and won the next three comfortably to set up a quarterfinal clash with ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka. In what was anticipated as a tough match, Wawrinka controlled the match throughout, sending a below par Murray out in straight sets. Murray shortly after flew to Croatia to begin preparations for the Davis Cup World Group Play-offs on clay. After a disappointing American hardcourt season, Murray took the decision to undergo surgery on his lower back, in the hope of fixing a disc problem that had caused him pain since early 2012.