Rafael Nadal’s Shanghai campaign will begin with an all-Spanish clash against Feliciano Lopez on Wednesday. Novak Djokovic is also kicking off his week as he faces Dominic Thiem.
Feliciano Lopez vs. (2) Rafael Nadal
Problems are mounting for Nadal as he heads into his Shanghai Rolex Masters opener on Wednesday. The Asian swing is generally Nadal’s worst part of the season even at 100 percent, and he is nowhere near that status this time around. In his return from a three-month layoff due to wrist issues, the world No. 2 was upset by Martin Klizan in last week’s China Open quarterfinals. Now he is suddenly dealing with appendicitis, which puts both this tournament and the rest of Nadal’s 2014 campaign in doubt.
Nonetheless, Nadal will try to get on track against a fellow Spaniard. Lopez has defeated Nadal twice before and this could be a golden opportunity for the underdog to get on the scoreboard for a third time in 12 tries versus the 14-time Grand Slam champion. The 33-year-old is a two-time semifinalist in Shanghai and he improved to 12-5 lifetime at the event by overcoming Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-7(12), 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday.
Pick: Lopez in 3
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Novak Djokovic vs. Dominic Thiem
Djokovic will be looking to maintain incredible momentum in Asia when he takes the court for his second-rounder. The world No. 1 triumphed last week in Beijing after destroying Tomas Berdych 6-0, 6-2 in Sunday’s final. Not only is Djokovic five for five in Beijing titles, but he is also the two-time defending champion in Shanghai. The top-seeded Serb is 16-2 lifetime at this tournament and a perfect 10-0 since losing to Roger Federer in the 2010 semifinals.
Up first for Djokovic on Wednesday is Thiem, whom he has never faced. Thiem booked his spot in the second round by taking out Lukas Rosol 6-4, 7-6(3) on Sunday. The 21-year-old Austrian owns 21 wins at the ATP level during what has been a positively breakout season. He is up to No. 39 in the world and is in contention for 2015 Australian Open seeding. Of course, his bid for an eventual top 32 status won’t be helped by this worst-possible second-round draw.
Pick: Djokovic in 2
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Feli knows if he does not beat Rafa today he will be the butt of locker-room jokes……….
Well it is obvious to even me now that he shouldn’t have even played like this.
https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/519824517246775296
Rafa still making some Rafa-like stretches………breaks Feli.
The come-back is on, folks!!!!!!!
Vamos!
Rafa is fighting the good fight. Well done to break Feli.
Come on Rafa!
Rafa’s upped his game a notch……
Feli shell-shocked…………
Well played Felli! Phew, for a moment I thought Feli was going to let Rafa win this……..
Well played Rafa! Now go home and get that appendix sorted out.
Vamos Champ!
#BlessingInDisguise
See you, Rafa, at your next tournament!
Vamos!
Fed will rise to #2 now surely????
Eventually.
As soon as this week if he reaches the semis (which he should).
Sean was right after all.
Hope Rafa goes home and gets the right treatment and rest for next season. If I were him, I’d take the rest of the year off.
Vamos Rafa
I hope he does the surgery now rather than later. If now, then he can start practicing for AO within a few weeks, and so have a good stretch of weeks and a couple of tournaments to ramp up.
Every single AO seems to come with hard challenges or illl-timed injuries (red-hot Tsonga (08) or Djokovic (11, 12), marathon semi with little time to recover (09), etc. Perhaps he can pull it off in 2015 despite whatever comes up?
He is the Bull, this is all part of the Nadal legend……….
Well, we know there’ll be one person who’ll be happy to see him home early: Xisca!
Life is unfair, most of the time, to most of us.
Even so, all the attitude and behaviour Rafa’s family instilled in him while growing up has resulted in him doing so well in his career overall, regardless of injustices.
If you have control of, say, 25% of the factors in your life, and you do as much as you can working those 25%, then life’s injustices matter far far less.
great post indeed…
chloro,
That was so beautifully said. The way in which Rafa has handled adversity throughout his career is an example for all of us.