The Shanghai Rolex Master, the penultimate Master 1000 tournament of the season, is underway with first round matches. There are still four spots up for grab for the ATP World Finals in London. Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka have already secured their berths for London. Al the top-20 of the ATP Race to London are in Shanghai this week.
Nick Kyrgios beat Andreas Haider Maurer 6-3 6-2 after playing a solid match in which he fended off five break point chances he faced and hit 13 aces. The young Aussie player set up a tough second round match against Kei Nishikori, who was surprisingly beaten by Benoit Paire in the semifinal of the Rakuten Open in Tokyo last week. Kirgyos, world number 32, broke in the opening game and held his service games to to win the first set with 6-3. Only in the eighth game Kirgyos faced two break points which he saved with his serve. Kyrgios got another break in the ninth game to clinch the first set with 6-3 in 26 minutes. Kirgyos got a double break in the sixth and in the eighth games to close out the match in one hour and 4 minutes
Nishikori, who is in contention for the ATP Finals in London and is currently ranked seventh in the ATP Race, could face Roger Federer in a potential quarter final in Shanghai.
Ivo Karlovic, who beat Goran Ivanisevic’s aces record last week in Beijing, overcame Jeremy Chardy 6-4 7-6 (8-6) with 18 aces setting up a second round match against 2009 finalist Rafa Nadal, who showed improving form last week in Beijing despite the 6-2 6-2 loss against Novak Djokovic in the final
John Isner hit 20 aces and won 81 percent of his first serve points to cruise past to a easy 6-1 6-2 win over Adrian Mannarino in just 46 minutes. Isner broke serve immediately in the first set. Mannarino had an injury on his groin in the fourth game and this affected the rest of his match. He made 25 unforced errors. Isner will take on either David Goffin or Japanese qualifier Go Soeda in the second round
Roberto Bautista Agut dropped just six first service points in his 6-2 6-3 win over Guillermo Garcia Lopez.
Steve Johnson rallied from a set down to overcome Andreas Seppi with 4-6 6-1 7-6 (7-2). Seppi wasted a match point at 5-3 40-30 in the third set before losing the decider at the tie-break. World Number 47 Johnson beat Seppi in their previous head-to-head match in Winston Salem on hard-court in 2013 with 7-5 in the third set. Seppi broke serve twice in the first and in the seven games of the first set. Johnson recovered one of the two breaks in the eighth game but Seppi closed out the first set in the tenth game with 6-4 after 44 minutes. Johnson reeled off five consecutive games from 1-1 to win the second set with 6-1. The decisive set went on serve until the sixth game when Seppi broke serve to take the edge. The Italian player earned a match point but he failed to capitalized on it. Johnson forced the match to the tie-break where he clinched the match with 7-2 setting up a second round with Andy Murray.
Martin Klizan beat Chinese wild card Ze Zhang 7-6 (10-8) 6-2 setting up a second round match against six-time Beiing champion and last year’s Shanghai runner-up Novak Djokovic who won this tournament twice. Djokovic is bidding to win his ninth title of the year after the Australian Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Rome, Wimbledon, the US Open and Beijing. Djokovic extended his winning streak to 29 consecutive winning matches in Beijing and was unstoppable last week in the Chinese capital where he dropped just 18 games in five matches.
