It was not straightforward, but in the end the “People’s Republic of Tennis” got the final they all wanted at the 2017 Shanghai Rolex Masters. On Sunday afternoon at 4.30pm local time (9.30am in the UK, but the middle of the night for those in North America) Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will perform in Act 38 of their never-ending saga in front of what will undoubtedly be a sell-out crowd at the impressive Qi Zhong Forest Sports Centre Arena (Qi Zhong Arena for brevity).
But it was far from a walk in the park to get there for the two champs. In the first of the two semifinals on Saturday afternoon, both played under a closed roof due to a slight but persistent drizzle, Rafael Nadal won in straight sets over Marin Cilic, but for the best part of the first set he looked on his back foot as the Croatian n.4 seed pounded from the baseline with his powerful groundstrokes. After a very rocky start saving six break points in his first two serving game lasting a total of 30 points, Cilic seemed to increase the frequency of his attacks as he mounted to two set points at 5-4. On the first of those opportunities, the only one Nadal had to play serving on the deuce court therefore unable to use his deadly lefty slice, Cilic netted a regulation forehand, missing his real true chance to get an edge over the Spaniard. On the following set point, as well as on a third one a few points later, Nadal delivered one of his poisonous slice curves, made even more lethal by the quick surface in Shanghai, to level to 5-5 and then take advantage of a flustered Cilic who squandered the following service game to abandon any hope to win the set.
The Spaniard seemed on course for an easy route in the second set, but he was inexplicably abandoned by his forehand for a few minutes when serving at 3-2 as he gifted the break back to Cilic. Even more surprising was a repeat of the same script at 5-4 with Nadal serving for the match, although credit needs to be given to the Croatian for taking big cuts with his inside-out forehand after Rafa squandered a match point with an erratic forehand shank. But during the subsequent tie-break it was again Cilic’s forehand to “make it or break it”: three unforced errors sealed the fate for the n.4 seed who lost the last five points in a row to concede defeat.
In the second semifinal, an ailing Juan Martin del Potro was deemed to be a “game time decision” for a freak fall during his Friday’s quarterfinal against Viktor Troicki that hurt his left wrist (the same that has undergone three surgeries in recent years). But the 6’7”-tall Argentinian regularly took the court against the “supremo” Roger Federer and gave the Swiss a good run for his money, taking the first set with an impressive performance on serve capitalizing on a tentative sixth game by Federer who missed two forehands to concede his only break of the day. The second set pivoted around a 20-point game at 2-3 when del Potro saved four break points before succumbing to his eighth forehand unforced error in the game to concede the deciding break. Del Potro’s energy levels seemed somewhat to drop at the beginning of the third set, when an easy forehand miss on the only break point gave Federer an early lead which eventually proved to be unassailable.
Weather forecast in Shanghai suggests the final may be played under the closed roof, which would give Federer another small advantage as the fast hard-courts in this tournament well suit his game style. Nadal, however, gets to his second Shanghai Masters final (ten years after the first one) on an open 16-win streak and is looking to add this missing title to his enviable collection as well as consolidating his position as the n.1 player in the world.
It’s the best possible final for this very ambitious tournament that reports suggest will become a 96-draw, 11-day event as of 2019, mimicking the likes of Miami and Indian Wells but without the “combined” element. Money does not seem to be an issue in China, and the country’s government looks keen on investing in tennis, so even if most spectators are still novices and may not be familiar with the peculiarities of the game (during the Federer-del Potro match players did complain repeatedly about the crowd making noise between first and second serves) and stands may look desperately empty during many preliminary round matches, it is not inconceivable that an increasingly important share of the circuit will be played in the Far East.
[1] R. Nadal d. [4] M. Cilic 7-5 7-6(3)
[2] R. Federer d. [16] J.M. del Potro 3-6 6-3 6-3
