SHANGHAI—Tennis fans around the world witnessed some spectacular tennis at the ATP Shanghai Rolex Masters. Eighteen players from the world top 20 were in the draw at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena. The Shanghai Masters is the eighth of nine ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments on the professional tour in 2014 and is the only one played outside of Europe and North America. As an ATP Masters 1000 event, the tournament distributes 1000 ranking points to the men’s singles and doubles champions. The 1000 points awarded to Roger Federer after his win in the finals puts him within 990 points of the world’s No.1 spot and player Novak Djokovic.
Roger Federer did what seemed impossible after Novak Djokovic’s performance at the China Open in Beijing. The Swiss had to play an almost perfect match in order to end the 28 match-winning run of Djokovic in China and enter the Shanghai Masters finals. In fact last time that Djokovic lost in China was to Federer back in 2010, when the Swiss defeated him in another semifinal match. Federer on the other hand got through to his third straight Masters 1000 final (Toronto, Cincinnati, Shanghai) with a straight set win.
The Swiss broke Djokovic twice to defeat the Serb 6-4, 6-4 and enter the finals of the Asian Swing Tour in Shanghai on Sunday Oct 12, 2014.
For Roger the race to No.1 is on after his win in Shanghai as Djokovic faces an interesting dilemma of becoming a father and plans on not playing anymore tournaments this year, other than the ATP London World Tour Finals. This will allow him to spend more time with his wife and be present at the birth of his first child. Federer on the other hand plans on making the run for No.1 by playing Basel and one more Masters 1000 in Paris.
World No.29 Giles Simone reached the finals after stopping the Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka, sixth seed Czech Tomas Berdych and Rafael Nadal’s winner Feliciano’s Lopez in the semifinals winning 6-2, 7-6 (1).
It was a great performance from Feliciano Lopez to take Nadal out of the tournament. Nadal who was diagnosed with appendicitis before the Shanghai Masters, chose to take antibiotics and play through, without surgery as long as possible. He plans to have surgery following the ATP World Tour Finals in London, and will play until then as scheduled.
The final between Simon and Federer was a mix of emotions. Federer had a slow start into the match and Simon even had a set point, which he wasn’t able to use. The ‘Federer Express’ fought his way back into the match to a tiebreak to win the first set with 7-6. It was another tight set in the second, with both players going head to head, forcing them into another tiebreak where it appeared that Federer stayed calmer in the big points compared to his French opponent. He took the second set and match with 7-6(6), 7-6(2).
In doubles the Bryan Brothers were successful against Benneteau and Roger-Vasellin with 6-3, 7-6 (3). This year has been remarkable for the Bryan Brothers as they dominated every single Masters tournament.
The top players Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Wawrinka have already qualified for the world year finals in London and right behind still in the run to join them in London are Cilic, NishikorMurray, Dimitrov, Berdych, Raonic, Ferrer who will be looking to play in Europe next and chase the points to London.
Ladies Update
The WTA Asian Tennis Swing Tour continued with some of the players going to Osaka, Japan and Tianjin, China. In Osaka Samantha Stosur from Australia defeated Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 7-6(7), 6-3 and in doubles Aoyama/Voracova defeated Arruabarrena/Maria 6-1, 6-2.
In China’s Tianjin the American player, Alison Riske took down the young Swiss Belinda Bencic 6-3, 6-4 and in doubles Rodionova/Kudryavtseva defeated Cirstea/Klepac in a close match of 6-7 (6), 6-2, 10-8.
Next up for the ladies is the WTA World Finals in Singapore, starting on Oct 20.
Vlatka Jovanovic is an ex-professional WTA ranked tennis player and an independent broadcaster journalist.
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