Federer Battles Through in Shanghai
Posted on October 11 2018
Roger Federer came through his second three-set match in a row with victory against Roberto Bautista Agut (3-6 6-4 6-1) today to progress to the quarterfinals where he will meet Kei Nishikori. The Swiss maestro is looking to defend the title he won in 2017 but will face a tough matchup against 12th ranked Nishikori.
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Nishikori, 28 has progressed to the quarterfinals after a bye in the first round, a three-set victory in the second round against Yibing Wu of China, and a 7-6 6-4 win over American Sam Querrey. Nishikori will be looking to go one step further in Shanghai than he did in his home tournament at the Japan Open, where he lost in the finals to Daniil Medvedev.
The winner of the highly anticipated Federer, Nishikori matchup will go on to face the winner of Borna Coric vs Matthew Ebden, Aussie Ebden having defied his ranking of 51 in the world to make a Masters 1000 quarterfinal.
Having taken out Peter Gojowczyk of Germany in a comfortable 6-2 6-3 victory in the last 16, he will now go on to face young Croatian, Borna Coric, who has put consecutive losses in Shenzhen and Beijing behind him to make a solid run here in Shanghai. Coric was leading Del Potro 7-5 in their last 16 game when the Argentine was forced to pull out.
In the bottom half, we will all be looking forward to a matchup of two top youngsters in Edmund vs Zverev, and two old heads in Djokovic vs Anderson. All four of these players have progressed to this stage without dropping a set, but that’s going to change for at least two of them as the number 2,5,18 and 14 all feature on Friday.
Brit, Kyle Edmund faced a difficult test in the last 16, facing Nicolas Jarry of Chile, who had beaten world number 6, Marin Cilic in the previous round. Edmund came through relatively unscathed though, taking the first set on a tie-break, and then easing through the second set 6-3.
He will now face 21-year-old Zverev, who is currently ranked number 5 in the world, having reached a career high of number 3 in 2017. The tall German has a perfect 3 and 0 record against Edmund having last beaten him in Rome back in May. Edmund who has just reached a career-high ranking of 14 will be looking to start to turn that record around though in what should be a great matchup.
The bottom quarter of the draw will provide us with a rerun of the Wimbledon final as Kevin Anderson looks to gain revenge on Novak Djokovic, but the big South African will have his work cut out with Djokovic in the kind of form he is in.
Both players recorded victories over two of tennis’ up and coming stars in the last 16, with Anderson beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4 7-6 and Djokovic overcoming Italy’s Marco Cecchinato. Anderson has just the one victory over Djokovic which came in their first meeting back in 2008, but since then it has been all Djokovic as he has reeled off 6 successive victories. Can Anderson turn the tables and claim his revenge?
Keep up to date with the draw and check out the schedule here!