Highlights: Federer, Nadal Advance On Wednesday Shanghai 2017
Highlights: Federer, Nadal Advance On Wednesday Shanghai 2017
Oct112017
Viktor Troicki struck again at the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Wednesday. The Serbian earned the biggest win of his season by knocking off Nitto ATP Finals hopeful Dominic Thiem 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5) to advance to the third round of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in China.
Troicki had been 0-4 against Top 10 players this season. But the Serbian earned another chance at the game’s best by beating #NextGenATP wild card Denis Shapovalov in the Shanghai first round, and he recovered from an early hiccup in the third-set tie-break against Thiem to notch the win.
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Troicki led 5/2 in the tie-break and had the match on his racquet. But the 31 year old lost the first point and double faulted at 5/3, handing it back to Thiem at 5/4. The Belgrade native rebounded, though, smashing a backhand up the line on his first match point.
It’s the second Top 10 win in Shanghai for Troicki in as many years. Last year, he beat Rafael Nadal in the second round in Shanghai. He went on to fall to eventual finalist Roberto Bautista Agut in the Round of 16.
Troicki is 1-10 during Round of 16 matches at Masters 1000 events. He’ll try to improve that mark when he faces American John Isner, who beat #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(2), 7-6(9). Isner was actually out-aced in the match (14 to 16), but saved all five of his break points to advance to the Shanghai third round.
London Doubles Hopeful Advances In Shanghai
Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram moved a step closer to qualifying for their second consecutive Nitto ATP Finals in London. Klaasen/Ram escaped a tight second-round match in Shanghai 6-4, 7-6(4) against Marcelo Demoliner and Fabio Fognini to move into the quarter-finals.
Klaasen/Ram now have 2,975 points in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, good enough for eighth place in the standings. The top eight teams qualify for the prestigious season-ending tournament, to be held 12-19 November at The O2 in London.
Top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers advanced by walkover against Nick Kyrgios and Lucas Pouille because Kyrgios was suffering from a viral illness.
Fabio Fognini has been fined $96,000 (£72,806) and given a suspended Grand Slam ban after verbally abusing an umpire at the US Open in September.
The Italian used insulting language towards Louise Engzell in his first-round defeat by Stefano Travaglia.
The 30-year-old world number 28 was initially fined $24,000 (£18,000) and suspended from the US Open.
If he does not commit another offence in the next two Grand Slam seasons, his punishment will be reduced.
The Grand Slam Board found Fognini committed a major offence of aggravated behaviour and conduct contrary to the integrity of the game.
In a statement it said: “Fognini accepts and will not appeal this decision and he has expressed remorse for his admitted misconduct. He has confidence that he will meet the conditions necessary to reduce his financial penalty and to lift his Grand Slam tournament suspensions in the future.”
Fognini’s fine will be halved and he will not be banned from the US Open and another Grand Slam if he does not commit another offence within the specified time period.
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer both registered straightforward victories to move into the third round of the Shanghai Masters.
World number one Nadal needed just 54 minutes to beat America’s Jared Donaldson 6-2 6-1.
Federer, chasing his 94th ATP title, found his rhythm as the match progressed to beat Argentine Diego Schwartzman 7-6 (7-4) 6-4.
Nadal plays Fabio Fognini next, while Federer faces Alexandr Dolgopolov.
Nadal, who leads world number two Federer in the rankings by 2,370 points, did not face a break point as he raced to victory over Donaldson.
Federer took a little longer to find his rhythm but 38 winners ensured his place in the second round.
Earlier, Britain’s Aljaz Bedene was forced to retire from his second-round match against Germany’s Alexander Zverev with a knee injury.
Bedene, ranked 48th in the world, was trailing 4-0 when he ended the match after just 12 minutes on court.
It is the second time in two weeks that Bedene has retired mid-match, and the seventh time in his career.
World number four Zverev will go on to play Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro in the third round.
Roger Federer had to fight but eventually came through a tight opener on Wednesday at the Shanghai Rolex Masters, beating Argentine Diego Schwartzman 7-6(4), 6-4 to advance to the third round of the season’s penultimate ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.
Federer improved to 4-0 against Schwartzman in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series and celebrated his 40th match win of the year with the straight-sets victory. The 36-year-old Swiss is now 40-4 during this comeback season.
“I think I served well. I had good concentration. Had good energy, as well, which I think is always important early on in a tournament,” Federer said.
During his first match in Shanghai since 2015, Federer was aggressive as he has been all season. He stepped into flat backhands and attacked the net, winning 14/24 net points. But the second seed did have to shake off a bit of rust in the big moments.
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Before Wednesday, he hadn’t played a tour-level match since 6 September, when he lost to Juan Martin del Potro in the US Open quarter-finals, and Federer saw break point after break point disappear in the first set.
Schwartzman, though, had much to do with it that as well. The 5’7” right-hander is enjoying his best season. He has climbed to a career-high No. 26 in the Emirates ATP Rankings and was coming off a semi-final run at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017 in Tokyo (l. to eventual champion Goffin).
The Argentine fended off break points at 1-2 and again at 2-3 before Federer converted in that sixth game to lead. Serving to go up 5-2, though, the 2014 titlist was broken. At 3-4, Federer again had two more chances to break but Schwartzman saved them all, and they headed to a tie-break, where Federer overcame an early mini-break for the one-set lead.
“I knew going in it was not going to be easy. He’s had a great run in recent weeks and months. I really felt that he was confident. Shaking off misses, no problem. He was serving well. You could see he was taking the right decisions on his groundstrokes,” Federer said.
“As an opponent, you feel that. You could see there was a sort of an ease about his game today. I felt like that was going to be dangerous down the stretch of any set. I felt that tie-break was tough. I was down and then came up with some really good shot-making after that in the ‘breaker to really turn it around.”
Federer made life more straightforward during the second set. He broke to love to start and cruised to his 28th hard-court match win of the season (28-3). The right-hander is going for sixth tour-level title of the year and his third Masters 1000 crown, having won the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in March and the Miami Open presented by Itau in April.
“I think getting the break early in the second set gave me the chance to try a few more things, play more relaxed, go for my shots more, and then I was able to bring it home, coming back from love/30 I think in the last game,” Federer said. “So it was a good match for me. I’m actually very happy with my level.”
He will next face Ukraine’s Alexander Dolgopolov, who beat Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-4.
Spanish star plays Fognini in third round on Thursday
Rafael Nadal continued his imperious run of form on Wednesday when he extended his winning streak to 13 matches with victory at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
The top seed, seeking his seventh tour-level crown of the year, knocked out #NextGenATP American Jared Donaldson 6-2, 6-1 in 54 minutes on a rain-hit day at the Qi Zhong Stadium.
Nadal, the 2009 finalist in Shanghai, had to bide his time to notch his first service break. At 2-3, Donaldson dropped to 0/40 and held off five break points before his Spanish opponent clinched the game in a run of seven straight games – from 2-2 in the first set to a 3-0 lead in the second set. He broke 21-year-old Donaldson, a contender for next month’s Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, for a fourth time to take a 5-1 lead in the second set.
The Spanish superstar will next take a 9-3 FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead into the third round against Italian Fabio Fognini, winning their two 2017 meetings in Miami and Madrid.
Nadal, who returned to No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on 21 August, is seeking to become year-end No. 1 for the fourth time (2008, 2010, 2013). He has amassed a 62-9 match record in 2017, including trophies at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (d. Ramos-Vinolas), the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (d. Thiem), the Mutua Madrid Open (d. Thiem), Roland Garros (d. Wawrinka), the US Open (d. Anderson) and last week’s China Open in Beijing (d. Kyrgios).
The 31-year-old Nadal has also clinched his place at Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November.
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Russia’s Maria Sharapova registered a straight-set win over Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu to reach the second round of the Tianjin Open.
The former world number one, now ranked 86th in the world, took just 82 minutes to beat Begu 6-4 6-2.
Sharapova converted all four of her break points to set up a meeting with Poland’s Magda Linette.
Elsewhere, second seed Petra Kvitova was beaten 6-4 5-7 6-4 by Chinese world number 113 Zhu Lin.
Eight double faults cost Kvitova as she struggled for rhythm throughout the match.
The Czech has now lost five of the seven three-set matches she has played this year.
“After rain interrupted the opening days of the tournament, Sharapova said: “It’s been a long wait for everyone, it hasn’t been easy.
“I had a first practice outdoors, and then I think it rained for 70 hours straight, unfortunately for the players.
“The good thing about this tournament is it has indoors, it’s pretty state-of-the-art, and I trained at the National Tennis Centre as well, which was very impressive.”
Zverev also reaches third round
Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov dug deep on Wednesday, saving three match points against American Ryan Harrison at the Shanghai Rolex Masters, to further strengthen his claims for a spot at next month’s Nitto ATP Finals.
Third seed Dimitrov recovered from a 2-4 deficit in the deciding set and fought back from 3/6 in the tie-break to overcome Harrison 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) in two hours and 34 minutes.
When asked about the match points, Dimitrov said, “I knew Ryan was going to hit a risk or just play a solid point. I was ready for either/or. I think at 5/6 when he served that first serve, I knew he was going to come to the net. I just didn’t know where he was going to play. I had a pretty decent return. I just had to be ready for anything. He missed it. Six-all was a great point for me. I think I hustled through pretty good. I knew on that match point I just had to make that first serve. That was the only thing that was in my head.
“He also played an unbelievable match. I’ve got to give him a lot of credit. He got to that point, for sure. It was pretty unfortunate to end up that way, but I just take it as it is right now.”
The 26-year-old Dimitrov is through to the Shanghai third round for the first time, improving to 39-16 on the year that includes three ATP World Tour titles at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp (d. Nishikori), Garanti Koza Sofia Open (d. Goffin) and the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati (d. Kyrgios).
Dimitrov is currently No. 5 in the Emirates ATP Race To London with 3,365 points – 350 points behind fourth-placed Austrian Dominic Thiem. He is hoping to join Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London, from 12-19 November. There are six places left up for grabs at the season finale.
Dimitrov will next meet Sam Querrey, who remains at No. 11 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, after he beat fellow American and #NextGenATP qualifier Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 7-6(7), saving one set point at 6/7 in the second set tie-break.
Later on a rain-hit day four, 2014 runner-up Gilles Simon ended the eight-match winning streak of Belgian David Goffin, currently No. 8 in the Emirates ATP Race To London and seeking a first-time Nitto ATP Finals qualification, 7-6(4), 6-3 in one hour and 30 minutes. In-form Goffin had picked up ATP World Tour trophies at the Shenzhen Open (d. Dolgopolov) and the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017 in Tokyo (d. Mannarino) in the past weeks. Simon now goes on to face fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the third round.
Third seed Alexander Zverev, who has already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals and the 21-and-under Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held in Milan from 7-11 November, advanced to the third round when Briton Aljaz Bedene retired after four games. The German goes on to challenge No. 16 seed Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina on Thursday.
Zverev is now 52-17 on the season, including ATP World Tour trophies at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier, the BMW Open by FWU in Munich (d. Pella), the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome (d. Djokovic), the Citi Open in Washington D.C. (d. Anderson) and the Coupe Rogers in Montreal (d. Federer).
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It hasn’t been all about tennis for players this week. ATPWorldTour.com provides a recap of the highlights.
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Shanghai Rolex Masters – Shanghai, China
Disney dance-offs, NBA basketballers and a ride on the Metro – it’s been part of a busy return to Shanghai for 2014 champion Roger Federer this week. The Swiss No. 2 seed and Chinese player Wu Di joined Disney characters Mickey Mouse and Goofy on court for a hit with kids on Family Day before squaring off with Mickey in a dance-off.
It wasn’t the 36 year old’s only brush with fame this week as he hung out with NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors, on Sunday night before their pre-season game against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Shanghai. Federer talked with the team about his love for the NBA and met the likes of Warriors stars Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.
“Our team really enjoyed the pre-game visit with Roger,” said Warriors’ Head Coach Steve Kerr. “Roger is one of the greatest winners in the history of sports and we thought it would be valuable for our players to hear what has kept him sharp, motivated and at the top of his game after so much success. His insight was invaluable.”
Deciding to mix his routine up a little, Federer took a Metro train to the Shanghai Rolex Masters site on Sunday, an excursion the Swiss great admitted wasn’t always possible in his day-to-day life.
“With the tournament, we looked at something I haven’t done really before,” he said. “It’s nice to be in a beautiful car and everything, but it’s nice to go do that.”
Fifth seed Dominic Thiem is one player keen to stamp his ticket to the Nitto ATP Finals this week and the Austrian was the first to discover who he’d have to get past to pick up valuable points in Shanghai. Thiem joined Chinese player Zhang Ze and former great Bjorn Borg for the draw ceremony.
Set to the stunning night backdrop of Shanghai’s skylines, Marin Cilic and Grigor Dimitrov took part in a game of mini tennis with kids on The Bund.
