While second-seeded Roger Federer was shocked by Albert Ramos-Vinolas on Tuesday, a slew of seeded players opened their Shanghai campaigns in better fashion with wins. Of the six seeds in action not named Federer, just one did not win their second round match in straight sets.
Straight Sets The Name Of The Game For Seeded Players
A total of seven seeded players were in action on Tuesday, led by second seeded Roger Federer. The defending champion was unceremoniously dumped out of Shanghai by qualifier Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-3. Of the six other seeds in play, only tenth seeded Gilles Simon did not win in straight sets. Simon wobbled briefly against qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili in the second set, dropping the second set before recovering for a 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 win. The Frenchman is seeking to get back to the final again in Shanghai after a surprising run here last year. Simon draws Leonardo Mayer in the second round.
Elsewhere, ninth-seeded Milos Raonic came back from a break down in the opening set against Thomaz Bellucci to take down the Brazilian 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2), After an early break gave Bellucci the lead at 1-0, the Canadian was nearly flawless with his first serve for the remainder of the match. Raonic won 38 of 40 points off his first serve. In all though, he won just one more point than his opponent for the match, 69 to 68.
After the match, Raonic said he felt the conditions would be good for him this week, "It’s dry here. The ball’s been moving through the court pretty well. It’s good conditions for me."
12th-seeded Kevin Anderson tallied 22 aces in beating Tommy Haas 6-3, 7-5. It was Anderson's first win since the US Open and first as the newly minted tenth ranked player in the world. Other seeds who advanced in straight sets on Tuesday included 11th-seeded Richard Gasquet who took down big serving Gilles Muller 7-6 (4), 6-2. 14th-seeded Marin Cilic made light work of his fellow Croatian Borna Coric in a total crush job 6-1, 6-2. Cilic won 28 of 34 service points in the match and broke his younger counterpart's serve five times. 16th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga finished the day's matches with an easy 6-3, 6-2 win over Victor Estrella-Burgos. Tsonga needed just 56 minutes to pick up the win. Both Cilic and Tsonga move into the third round.
Other Second Round Action
Despite Ramos' success as a qualifier, the other qualifiers in play on Tiesday found their stays in Shanghai put to an end. Vasek Pospisil slipped past qualifier Simone Bolelli 6-3, 6-4. Pospisil threw down double digit aces with ten and saved all three break points he faced. Back in action for the first time since playing in Davis Cup play in mid-September, David Goffin had no problems with qualifier Go Soeda. The Belgian won 90 percent of his first serve points and punished Soeda on his second serve for 17 points of the 28 that were played in Goffin's 6-4, 6-2 win. American Jack Sock crushed qualifier Lukasz Kubot 6-4, 6-2 behind a good serving day to secure his spot in round three. Other winners on the day included Viktor Troicki who came back to oust Pablo Cuevas 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 and Fabio Fognini who beat Joao Sousa 7-6 (2), 6-3.
Day Three Schedule
Wednesday sees the debut of the tournament's top seed as Novak Djokovic starts his week in Shanghai against Martin Klizan. It is a full slate spread across Shanghai's main courts among the rest of the seeds with six other seeds seeing their first match of the week. That includes sixth seed Kei Nishikori starting Stadium Court play against Nick Kyrgios. Third seed Andy Murray is scheduled to play Steve Johnson after that match with the Djokovic-Klizan clash to follow. 8th seed Rafael Nadal finishes the Stadium Court schedule with a tough start against Ivo Karlovic.
On the Grandstand, 7th seed David Ferrer gets going against Bernard Tomic. That is followed by fifth seeded Tomas Berdych making his debut against Jack Sock and then fourth seed Stan Wawrinka taking on Viktor Troicki. Milos Raonic finishes play on the Grandstand against Roberto Bautista-Agut. Other seeds playing on Wednesday include tenth seed Gilles Simon against Leonardo Mayer, 11th seed Richard Gasquet squaring off against Vasek Pospisil, 12th seed Kevin Anderson dueling with Fabio Fognini, 13th seed John Isner on upset alert against David Goffin and 15th seed Feliciano Lopez with a tough one against Dominic Thiem.