TENNIS – The Shanghai Rolex Master, the penultimate Master 1000 tournament of the year, will feature all the top-three players in the ATP Ranking for the first time since Wimbledon. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal lead the line-up which includes all the top-10 players and 18 of the top 20 players. Five spots for the ATP World Finals are still up for grabs. Two Grand Slam champions Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic and US Open finalist Kei Nishikori are the biggest favourites to qualify for the ATP Finals at the London O2 Arena. Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer, Milos Raonic, Andy Murray and Grigor Dimitrov will fight for valuable points in what is expected to be a close battle. Diego Sampaolo
Novak Djokovic will chase his consecutive third Shanghai title after winning against Andy Murray in 2012 and Juan Martin Del Potro in 2013 and the 20th Master 1000 title of his career. He has his fifth China Open final after collecting 23 consecutive wins in the Chinese capital. He will be looking to add Shanghai to his titles won this year at Indian Wells, Miami, Rome and Wimbledon.
The Serbian player, who reached at least the semifinal in all his four appearances in Shanghai. has been drawn in the same quarter as Andy Murray and David Ferrer in a very tough quarter of the draw. Djokovic will make his debut in the second round against either Austrian rising star Dominic Thiem or Lukas Rosol before facing a possible third round match against Kevin Anderson. The quarter finals could feature the re-match of the Beijing semifinal between Djokovic and Murray. The Scotsman, who is reaching top form at this time of the year winning his first title of the year in Shenzhen and reaching the semifinal in Bejing could meet David Ferrer in a very interesting third round match between two contenders for a spot for the ATP Finals. Murray won the Shanghai title in 2010 and 2011 and finished runner-up in 2012
Djokovic could face Roger Federer in the semifinal. Federer, who was welcomed like a pop star on his arrival at the Shanghai Airport, will face either Leandro Mayer or Chinese wild card Di Wu and Roberto Bautista Agut or Vasek Pospisil in the third round. Federer, who finished runner-up in Beijing in 2010, is projected to play against this year’s US Open finalist Kei Nishikori in the quarter final. The Japanese player, who has qualified for the Tokyo final this week, will have to overcome Grigor Dimitrov in a possible third round match. The Swiss Maestro will play for the fourth time in Shanghai. He lost the final in 2010 losing to Murray and reached the semifinal in 2012 where he lost again to the Scotsman. He won two consecutive Masters Cup finals in 2006 and 2007 which were hosted by the Chinese city. He will play his first ATP Tournament since he lost the semifinal at the US Open against Marin Cilic. Federer played in eight finals this year and collected 56 match wins with three titles in Dubai, Halle and Cincinnati where he lifted the 22nd Master 1000 title of his career.
Rafa Nadal, who has reached the semifinal in Beijing in his comeback this week after a 13-week lay-off due to a wrist injury, has been drawn in the third quarter. He will start his Shanghai campaign against either his compatriot Feliciano Lopez or a qualifier in the second round and US giant John Isner. He will be chasing his 28th Master 1000 title but his first ever win in Shanghai. In last year’s edition of the Shanghai Rolex Master he lost in the semifinal against Juan Martin Del Potro in straight sets
Nadal, runner-up in Shanghai in 2009, could face Milos Raonic in the quarter final. The Canadian player, who lost the Tokyo final this week and is currently ranked eighth in the ATP Race to London, is projected to meet this year’s Roland Garros semifinalist Ernests Gulbis in the third round.
Raonic has enjoyed a solid second half of the year in which he reached the semifinal for the first time in his career in a Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon before winning the ATP 500 in Washington. He then went on to reach the quarter final in Toronto, the semifinal in Cincinnati and the fourth round at the US Open before finishing runner-up in Tokyo.
The bottom half of the draw features recent US Open champion Marin Cilic, 2014 Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych, who has reached the Beijing final this week to move up to seventh in the ATP Race to London, Richard Gasquet and Fabio Fognini. Nadal could face one of these players in the semifinal.
Cilic could renew his battle against Tomas Berdych in a re-match of this year’s US Open quarter final in the third round.
Wawrinka will open against either Guillermo Garcia Lopez or this week’s Tokyo semifinalist Gilles Simon and could meet Fabio Fognini in the third round
There are just seven tournaments to score points for the ATP Finals in London. With Djokovic, Federer and Nadal already qualified for the ATP Finals, five spots are up for grabs as the battle is really heating up. Wawrinka, Nishikori and Cilic are favourites to secure their ticket to London. Raonic, Dimitrov, Ferrer and Murray are fighting for two spots in a very close battle. Nishikori, Cilic, Raonic and Dimitrov could qualify for the first time for the end-of season tournament.
Mikhail Kukushkin fought back from a set down to battle past Tommy Robredo 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4) in two hours and eight minutes in the first main draw match on Sunday. Robredo broke Kukushkin in the 12th game of the third set when the Kazakh player was serving for the match forcing the decider to the tie-break. Robredo did not capitalize on his chances and dropped the final four points of the tie-break. Kukushkin will take on either Kevin Anderson or James Ward. Two more main draw matches will be played in the opening day: Lukas Rosol vs Dominic Thiem and Aleksander Dolgopolov vs Roberto Bautista Agut.
The Big Four formed by Djokovic, Federer, Nadal and Murray dominated the past 41 Master 1000 Tournaments. There were only exceptions in the last four years: Soderling in Paris Bercy 2010, Ferrer in Paris Bercy 2012, Wawrinka in Monte-Carlo 2014 and Tsonga in Toronto 2014. Tsonga has pulled out of the Shanghai Master 1000 earlier this week.
