Monfils-Goffin Clash Highlights Thursday In Shanghai

With five players already locking in their spots for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, Thursday’s action at the Shanghai Rolex Masters will see sixth seed Gael Monfils and No. 11 seed David Goffin square off in a third-round clash that is crucial for both of their chances to qualify for London for the first time.

Monfils is currently No. 6 in the Emirates ATP Race to London with 3,535 points, while Goffin is No. 11 with 2,465 points. The Frenchman is 665 points ahead of No. 9 Berdych in the Emirates ATP Race to London, while Goffin trails No. 8 Dominic Thiem by 740 points. The winner on Thursday will receive at least 180 Emirates ATP Rankings points for a quarter-final showing. The 90 points hinging on the outcome would be enough for Goffin to overtake Marin Cilic and break into the Top 10 of the race.

Goffin is on a run of form having finished runner-up last week at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016, while Monfils has posted a 23-4 record since Wimbledon. The Frenchman leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry over Goffin 1-0, with the lone win coming this summer in the third round of the Rogers Cup. Goffin could rise as high as No. 7 by winning the championship on Sunday. Although the Belgian won his only two ATP World Tour titles more than two years ago at Kitzbühel and Metz in 2014, he will be highly motivated to continue closing the gap as he bids for a spot in London.

A banner year for Alexander and Mischa Zverev has only gotten better at the Shanghai Rolex Masters, where both brothers will be in third-round action. The Zverevs are the first siblings in the Round of 16 of an ATP Masters 1000 event since Olivier and Christophe Rochus at 2006 Miami. Mischa, 29, qualified for his ninth tour-level event of 2016, tying seven other players for the most in a single season since 1990. The German is scheduled to play Stockholm qualifying this weekend should he not beat Marcel Granollers and reach the semi-finals.

Alexander, 19, upset Stan Wawrinka in St. Petersburg last month to become the youngest player and first teenager to win an ATP World Tour title since 2008. With a victory over 2015 Shanghai finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Thursday, the #NextGen star would reach his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final.

Another player seeking his maiden ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final is American Jack Sock, who faces fifth seed Milos Raonic on Union Pay 3. Raonic has won eight straight FedEx ATP Head 2 Head matches against Sock. If he makes it nine, the Canadian will have reached the quarter-finals of all nine ATP Masters 1000s in his career.

Three other men still in the Shanghai draw have already accomplished that feat: Top seed Novak Djokovic, second seed Andy Murray and Monfils. On Thursday, the defending champion Djokovic clashes with Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil, who has won back-to-back main draw matches this week for the first time all season. Murray meets Metz champion Lucas Pouille, who would rise to No. 13 in the Emirates ATP Race to London with his sixth Top 10 win of the season.

Seven of the 16 seeds were upset in the first or second round, leaving seven players who’ve reached no more than one ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final respectively: A. Zverev (0 QFs), M. Zverev (2009 Rome QF), Sock (0 QFs), Pospisil (2013 Montréal SF), Pouille (2016 Rome SF), Viktor Troicki (2011 Monte-Carlo QF) and Roberto Bautista Agut (2014 Madrid SF). Troicki and Bautista Agut will play a rematch of their Winston-Salem semi-final, which the Spaniard led by a set and 5-0 before surviving 7-5, 6-7(2), 6-2. Play concludes on Stadium Court with third seed Wawrinka meeting Gilles Simon, who like Pospisil, has lost his last 10 matches against Top 10 opponents. Simon defeated Wawrinka en route to the 2014 Shanghai final, but lost to the Swiss here in 2010.

The doubles quarter-finals begin on Thursday and include 2014 Shanghai champions Bob and Mike Bryan. Shanghai is the lone ATP Masters 1000 event that the Bryans have won only once. Should they capture the title without a walkover this week, the American twins will become the first doubles team to reach 1,000 victories. 

Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares would pass Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, the No. 1 team in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race to London, by winning their Shanghai quarter-final on Friday. Murray and Soares have yet to play a point after receiving a first-round bye and a second-round walkover. A win in the quarter-finals would also make Soares the 50th World No. 1 in the 40-year history of the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings. Yesterday’s media notes incorrectly stated that Murray, not Soares, could become World No. 1 this week.