David Goffin’s hopes of reaching the ATP world tour finals were dashed as he suffered a shock defeat to world number 55 Malek Jaziri 7-6(2) 3-6 6-2.
At the opening of the contest, both men held serve with only two break points converted, as a result the first set went to a tiebreak. Jaziri would dominate the tiebreak with some big serving to take it 7-2. Nevertheless, Goffin was determined to collect as many points as possible in Shenzhen and this showed as he would break in the first and last game of the second set to win it 6-3. Despite the belgians’ determination, he was ultimately outdone as Jaziri would use his big serve to grab the break at 2-1 and again at 4-1 in the decider to clinch the biggest win of his 2016 season.
“I’m really happy today for my win,” said Jaziri. “I’ve played very good the last few weeks and now I’m keeping the positive results up here. David is playing really well this year, so it was a very good win and hopefully I can continue.”
Jaziri will now advance to back-to-back ATP quarterfinals after Metz last week, where he will face Janko Tipsarevic. The returning Serbian knocked out sixth seed Benoit Paire 6-0 6-7(5) 7-5, to secure his first ATP world tour quarterfinal for three years. Tipsarevic was on the brink of defeat in the final set when he went a break down at 4-3 in the decider, but broke back at for 5-5 and broke once again to take the match at the third opportunity. The Serbian will hope to build on his ranking, and continue this momentum in Shenzhen this week.
In other results, seventh seed Fabio Fognini was also stunned as he got knocked out by world number 120 Mischa Zverev. Both men started and served very well as the first set went to a tiebreak. It was the German who had the killer instinct to take the first set 7-6(4). Similarly, both men started holding their service in the second set, but the German showed signs that he was going to break the erratic Italian. This was evident in the 10th game when Zverev broke to grab the match 7-6(4) 6-4. This win means the 29 year old German will advance to the quarterfinals, where he will meet third seed Richard Gasquet, who only dropped one game in his win over Andrew Whittington. The world number 18 won 87% of first serves in his 6-0 6-1 win over the Australian qualifier.
Finally, Thomas Fabbiano secured his place in the second round after a 3-6 6-3 6-4 win over world number 97 Yoshihito Nishioka. Fabbiano, who replaced Alexander Zverev after he pulled out due to fatigue, will play Thomaz Bellucci in the next round.
