World Number 38 Borna Coric edged Aleksander Dolgopolov in three sets with 6-3 1-6 7-6 (7-5) in the first round of the Shanghai Rolex Master, the penultimate Master 1000 tournament of the season. The 18-yea-old Croatian rising star, the youngest player in the top-50, will face the winner of the match between 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic and Chinese wild-card Wu Di. There is a good possibility of an interesting Croatian derby in the second round.
Coric capitalized the break point in the fourth game of the first set en route to winning the first set with 6-3. Dolgopolov took control of the match in the second set cruising to 6-1 in the second set to force the match to the decider. Dolgopolov got the break to take a 3-1 lead but Coric broke back to draw level to 3-all. The match went on serve until the tie-break. Dolgopolov raced out to 4-2 but Coric reeled off four consecutive points to take the 6-4 lead before sealing the win on the second match point. Dolgolopolov has lost his fourth consecutive match in the first round since his semifinal in the Master 1000 tournament in Cincinnati where he lost to Novak Djokovic in three sets.
World Number 20 Bernard Tomic beat number 41 Fernando Verdasco 6-3 7-6 (7-3). Tomic earned three breaks in the fourth game and capitalized on the third break opportunity en route to winning the first set with 6-3. These were the only break points of the first set. The second set went on serve. Only in the seventh game Tomic earned the only break point of the second set, but Verdasco saved it. the set came down to the tie-break. Tomic got two mini-breaks at the start of the tie-break and on the ninth point for 6-3 earning the match point which he converted at the first opportunity. Tomic will face this week’s Beijing semifinalist David Ferrer in the second round.
