ATP Masters 1000: Shanghai

[matt_897]

This week we hit the 8th stop of the Masters 1000 cirucit and it's the bgigest tournament in Asia the Shanghai Masters. With it's position on the calendar, it does tend to get a few withdrawls and while this is the case here we still have 3 out of the top 4 here with Nadal still out it's actually a pretty solid list. Ferrer and Del Potro are the ones that are missing. Here's the draw:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/5014/mds.pdf

Main things from it is that Federer and Murray are in the same half while Djokovic has Berdych as his highest seed. Tsonga, Nishikori and Raonic are in that little Berdych section as well. as far as the Asusies go, Tomic has to face Mayer again, might be a slightly better matchup on hard but Mayer should get the win. Hewitt has stepanek in the battle of the old timers, wins that and could face Gasquet. Matosevic as one out of direct entry sadly and is trying to qualify and faces Stakhovsky in the final round. Ebden had to qualify as well and had a shocking loss and lsoes all of his ranking points so he falls out of the top 100, disappointing but he deserves it with the tennis he has played. Luczak tried as well because they still had spots left and lost to Garcia-Lopez.

TV Coverage: ESPN all week as usual, 5pm is the coverage starting and usually they have 4 matchs on both courts so play goes to about 1am.

Tip: Always a tough one to predict this one since we don't who is going to come best. orignally i was going to go Murray but Djoko is looking quite fresh now so I think I'll go with him now.

 

[Chris_2593]

Roger Federer [1] - Bye
Ze Zhang [WC] - Qualifier
Denis Istomin - Carlos Berlocq
Stanislas Wawrinka [13] - Albert Ramos

Marin Cilic [10] - Qualifier
Martin Klizan - Thomaz Bellucci
Fernando Verdasco - Go Soeda
Juan Monaco [7] - Bye

Andy Murray [3] - Bye
Florian Mayer - Bernard Tomic
Alexandr Dolgopolov - Jeremy Chardy
Gilles Simon [15] - Jurgen Melzer

Richard Gasquet [11] - Qualifier
Lleyton Hewitt [WC] - Radek Stepanek
Kevin Anderson - Jarkko Nieminen
John Isner [8] - Bye

---

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [5] - Bye
Benoit Paire - Qualifier
Marcos Baghdatis - Fabio Fognini
Milos Raonic [12] - Qualifier

Kei Nishikori [14] - Wu Di [WC]
Sam Querrey - Zhe Li [WC]
Andreas Seppi - Qualifier
Tomas Berdych [4] - Bye

Janko Tipsarevic [6] - Bye
Mikhail Youzhny - Victor Troicki
Tommy Robredo - Qualifier
Nicolas Almagro [9] - Tommy Haas

Philipp Kohlschreiber [16] - Ryan Harrison
Feliciano Lopez - Alejandro Falla
Grigor Dimitrov - Pablo Andujar
Novak Djokovic [2] - Bye

Matosevic got through quallies in the 3 sets. Looking foward to watching tomorrow. Awesome time zone.

 

[matt_897]

Ahhh, Marinko got Raonic, that's a loss. None of the aussies play today.

 

[Moo]

When the going gets tough - Almagro gets going*

* by going I refer to going home

 

[matt_897]

When the going gets tough - Almagro gets going*

* by going I refer to going home

Haha, that is very true.

All 3 Australians are in tonight, 2 of them are on centre court. Matosevic's match against Raonic is 2nd on so that will be around 7pm AEDST with Hewitt/Stepanek on not before 9pm ADEST so both will be on ESPN. Tomic/Mayer is on an outside court starting at 4

 

[Moo]

Haha, that is very true.

All 3 Australians are in tonight, 2 of them are on centre court. Matosevic's match against Raonic is 2nd on so that will be around 7pm AEDST with Hewitt/Stepanek on not before 9pm ADEST so both will be on ESPN. Tomic/Mayer is on an outside court starting at 4

I've just bet on John Isner against Kenny Anderson......I know I shouldn't of, I know the odds are short $1.50 and I know Isner can't play outside of the US of A - just giving back my Tommy H $'s

 

[Sir Vlado]

Tomic gets bagelled in the second set against Mayer. Loses 6-4 6-0. Only 8 points in the entire second set. Too amusing.

 

[matt_897]

Tomic gets bagelled in the second set against Mayer. Loses 6-4 6-0. Only 8 points in the entire second set. Too amusing.

That would of been a fun match to watch, haha. Mayer would of toyed with him completely. More points loss for Tomic although his Aussie no.1 should be safe, Matosevic needs to make the 3rd round to overtake him and that probably won't happen.

 

[matt_897]

I've just bet on John Isner against Kenny Anderson......I know I shouldn't of, I know the odds are short $1.50 and I know Isner can't play outside of the US of A - just giving back my Tommy H $'s

He won the first set. I wouldn't of bet on it because of his record outside the States or because of these two big servers it will come down to a few points here and there. Even if Isner is the better player overall by a solid margin.

 

[matt_897]

Raonic defeats Matosevic 7-6, 6-3. Raonic wasn't that good, Matosevic was worse. Not very descritptive but that sums up the match.

 

[Moo]

He won the first set. I wouldn't of bet on it because of his record outside the States or because of these two big servers it will come down to a few points here and there. Even if Isner is the better player overall by a solid margin.

Phew that was close - last tiebreak well flat out he was lucky ....now let's hope Hewitt can push through

 

[matt_897]

Hewitt lost to Stepanek 7-5, 6-1. Pretty ordinary performance, service percentage was too low and way too many errors, off to Stockholm for him now.

Big guns play tonight.

 

[hirdy_is_champ]

Geez Aussies are really sucking shit right now. lol, but

 

[Moo]

Simon surely will beat The Doglopovster - down a break and I'm on

 

[matt_897]

Simon surely will beat The Doglopovster - down a break and I'm on

Hmm, I don't like matchup for Simon, he hates players that give him no pace and Dolgo can do that. That's why Simon lost to Ebden here last year.

 

[Sir Vlado]

I'm still hopelessly holding out for Dolgo to make a big run at a big tournament again. I'd love to see him in the top 10 as unlikely as it seems.

 

[Moo]

Stranger things have happened

 

[matt_897]

I'm still hopelessly holding out for Dolgo to make a big run at a big tournament again. I'd love to see him in the top 10 as unlikely as it seems.

He's still young, another big run will come, he's too good of a player not to.

 

[Sir Vlado]

Just beat Simon in straights, looking good so far this tournament.

 

[Moo]

Just beat Simon in straights, looking good so far this tournament.

Hits Murray next round - so that is probably that for Shangai

 

[Chris_2593]

Nishikori defending semi final points from last year lost to Querrey in 3 sets. Niskikori was up4-1 in the third. Its great to see Sam playing well again.

 

[matt_897]

Sexy Stepanek to win the title.... (or lose to Murray next round)

 

[Big Tezza]

Federer survived a pretty big scare against Wawrinka last night and is guaranteed 300 weeks at No.1. Incredible accomplishment.

 

[hirdy_is_champ]

I didn't watch the Fed/Stan match but I did peak at the scores when it was about 4-3 on serve during the second. I'm surprised Roger won the third so comfortably though, going by the set scores it was obviously close up until then. Must've just put the foot on the accelerator.

Also cannot believe Stepanek is still going around. I did see him practicing shirtless at AO one year, but alas I did not feel the need to stick around

 

[matt_897]

Amazing that the top 3 still make the semis here, just shows how much better they really are. Djokovic getting up to his best again, that no. 1 will be his soon enough. Good Fed got 300 weeks and still pulling him to win this but Djoko has looked best all week. Should be too fun semis tonight, i have a feeling berdych will get revenge on the US Open semi.

Also, here's one of my picks for shot of the year in the Fed/Wawa match: