Upsets Abound in Second Round of Shanghai Masters 1,000 as Top Favorites Fall

The start of the second round of the Shanghai Masters 1,000, in which the main favorites appeared, brought with it a good handful of setbacks. The German Alexander Zverev, tenth in the world, succumbed this Friday 6-3 and 6-1 against the Russian Roman Safiullin (50th ATP). An hour and fifteen minutes into the match was easy for the Russian, who took advantage of all his break options, while the ninth seed missed four of his six opportunities.

Four service losses – one in the first set and three in the second – compared to his rival’s zero, dictated the path of the 26-year-old German, champion of Tokyo 2021. The Russian Roman Safiullin will face the American Ben in the round of 32. Shelton (number 20 in the world ranking), who at only 20 years old defeated the Spanish Jaume Munar by a double 6-4.

A day of perplexity, since the Danish Holger Rune, third seed, also lost resoundingly in his first match, 6-0 and 6-2 in one hour and ten minutes of play against the American Brandon Nakashima, currently in 122nd place in the world ranking. The result is a addition and continues Rune’s disastrous streak since he reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, where he was stopped by the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz. Then, he lost in his debuts in Toronto, Cincinnati and the US Open and in his second match last week in Beijing. At no time was the fifth in the world a rival for Nakashima, who broke his serve on five occasions. The American will face the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang in his next match.

Another unexpected result was the defeat of the Italian Lorenzo Mussetti (18th ATP) at the hands of the Taiwanese Yu Hsiu Hsu (184th) by 6-3 and 6-4. He will test his momentum against Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, who beat Australian Thanasi Kokkinakins 7-6 (5) 6-4. The Argentine’s next rival will be the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, winner against a Felix Auger-Aliassime who does not raise his head, and was surprised again 7-6 (3), 4-6 and 6-3.

In other second round matches in Shanghai, the Norwegian Casper Ruud, eighth seed, defeated the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka 7-5 and 6-0, the Hungarian Fabian Maroszan defeated the Australian Alex de Miñaur 6-3 and 7-5, the Serbian Dusan Lajovic against the Dutch Tallon Grieskspoor 6-4, 3-2 and retired, the American Christopher Eubanks against the German Yannick Hanfmann 4-6, 6-3 and 6-2 and the American Sebastian Korda against the Chinese Yunchaokete Bu by 6 -1 and 6-4. The first seed in the tournament is Carlos Alcaraz, number 2 in the world, who will play his first match this Saturday against the Frenchman Gregoire Barrere, 73. The number one in the ranking, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, does not play in Shanghai of his own free will.

2023-10-06 16:42:53
#Rune #Zverev #AugerAliassime #debut