A large chunk of seeds got their campaigns underway at the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Tuesday, most with victories, but not all of them. A handful of veterans were sent packing, including one Race to London hopeful, while two other Race to London chasers got their campaigns underway with strong performances. The first round was completed and the second round got underway on Tuesday, so here’s what happened on day three in Shanghai.
Results
World number one Novak Djokovic got his title defence off to a good start with a straight-sets win over Fabio Fognini. Djokovic showed no signs of rust in his first match in a month, starting and ending with hot runs to polish off Fognini 6-3, 6-3. Check out the full recap here.
The French favourites had a good day, as both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils were victorious, Tsonga in the second round and Monfils in the first, by nearly identical scorelines. Tsonga, the 2015 runner-up in Shanghai, took out Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 7-6(6), while Monfils conquered big-hitting Kevin Anderson 7-6(4), 6-3. For Tsonga, one break was enough in the opening set before a wild second set saw the two men exchange breaks and even more break points before the Frenchman saved two set points in the tiebreak, eventually coming back to win it 8-6. After a tight first set, Monfils seemed to have won it when he broke Anderson at 5-5, only for the South African to level. However, the tiebreak went to Monfils and the sixth seed would not repeat the mistake when he broke late in the second, going ahead 5-3 and serving out the match.
Looking to continue his late charge towards the ATP World Tour Finals, David Goffin battled back from a set and a break down to defeat Juan Martin del Potro in an epic first round battle. Del Potro took the opening set with the lone break and broke immediately to start the second, but Goffin would fight back eventually claiming victory with a late break in a wild third set. Check out the full recap here. Marin Cilic was not so luck. His Race to London bid took a massive blow as the Croatian became the red-hot Alexander Zverev’s latest victim. The German teen rallied from a set down to take control of the match, claiming the lone break of the second set and winning the last five games in a row to oust the eighth-seeded Cilic 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Another first round epic saw Feliciano Lopez edge 10th seed David Ferrer in an all-Spanish affair in just over two and a half hours. Lopez took the opening set in a tiebreak after blowing a break lead, only for Ferrer to score the lone break in the second to level the match. There were no breaks in the third, although Ferrer saved six break points just to force the deciding set tiebreak. The breaker started off as tight as the match itself, staying on serve until 3-3 when Lopez scored the first minibreak. That would be enough for the lefty, as he hung on for a 6-4 lead, at which point he grabbed a second minibreak to wrap up the upset.
Nick Kyrgios, who launched himself into Race to London contention with his title in Tokyo last week, got off to a strong start in Shanghai with an impressive win over Sam Querrey. The Aussie needed only 54 minutes and one break in each set to move into the second round with a 6-4, 6-4 win. Kyrgios only held three break points in the match, but converted two of them which was enough. He broke serve in every game where he held a break point. The Aussie was dominant on his own serve, never facing a break point in the entire match. Beijing runner-up Grigor Dimitrov was also a 6-4, 6-4 victor. In a much tougher match, he pulled a minor upset by defeating 14th seed Richard Gasquet.
13th seed Lucas Pouille was untroubled his in first round match, knocking off Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-3 without facing a single break point. It took Pouille four break points in two games to get the break in the opener, but he would come out quickly in the second, breaking in the first game and bookended the set with a second break. 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut was also victorious, advancing to the second round when Bernard Tomic retired in the second set. The Spaniard had won the opening set 6-3 and was up a double break at 3-0 in the second, having only lost three points in the set, when Tomic retired.
In other action, the other Spaniards suffered mixed fates as Marcel Granollers was victorious over Yuichi Sugita, but Pablo Carreno Busta fell to Gilles Simon and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez lost a tight three-setter to Paolo Lorenzi. Jack Sock reached the second round with a straight-sets win over Guido Pella.
The second round will be completed tomorrow with Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, and Rafael Nadal all getting their campaigns underway.