The race for the year-end world number one hits the Shanghai Rolex masters as Rafael Nadal’s absence creates opportunity for Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
As world number one Rafael Nadal continues to recover from a knee injury, the race to finish the year world number one heats up as Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic headline the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
It is a big week for Federer especially considering he is the defending champion in Shanghai this week and must retain his title to keep his world number one aspirations alive.
As for the recent Wimbledon and US Open champion, he has no points to defend for the rest of the year so the Serb is in pole position to finish the year as the world’s best player.
The draw has given the top two seeds different routes to a potential showdown between the two a week on Sunday. The defending champion will play either Tokyo finalist Daniil Medvedev or Chinese wildcard Ze Zhang in his first match.
The 20 time grand slam champion would have to overcome potential tests such as Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori and Juan Martin Del Potro to reach another Shanghai final.
While Novak Djokovic has a much easier path with Maximillian Marterer or Jeremy Chardy awaiting in the second round. The Serb will then have potential matches against Marco Cecchinato, Kevin Anderson and Alexander Zverev before a potential crunch match with Federer in the final.
However there are many obstacles for Federer and Djokovic’s potential opponents with a stacked draw taking place in Shanghai this week. The Beijing finalist, Juan Martin Del Potro has been given a tough draw in Shanghai this week with Richard Gasquet and Nick Kyrgios in his section of the draw. There is also a crunch match between Borna Coric and Stan Wawrinka in round one that occurs in Del Potro’s part of the draw.
An erratic, Alexander Zverev will have a tough first match as he faces either Denis Shapovalov or Nikoloz Basilashvili, with both men reaching the last four in Tokyo and Beijing respectively. The likes of Alex De Minaur and Pablo Carreno Busta are also in the young German’s section.
Another young prospect in Stefanos Tsitsipas could prevent a Wimbledon final rematch as he appears in Kevin Anderson’s section of the draw. The young Greek is an opponent Novak Djokovic knows all about after he defeated the 14 time grand slam champion in Toronto earlier this year.
Here is the full draw, with main draw action starting tomorrow:
Shanghai singles & doubles draws pic.twitter.com/dxZhl9oMpj
— Michal Samulski (@MichalSamulski) October 6, 2018
