Novak Djokovic will kick off his Shanghai campaign when he contests a second-round match against Fabio Fognini on Tuesday. Marin Cilic and Alexander Zverev are also aiming for a place in the last 16.
(1) Novak Djokovic vs. Fabio Fognini
Djokovic and Fognini will be going head-to-head for the eighth time in their careers and for the first time in almost three years when they clash in round two of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Tuesday. All seven of their previous encounters have gone Djokovic’s way, and he has won four on hard courts–including two in Shanghai. They have not faced each other since the 2014 Australian Open, where the Serb cruised 6-3, 6-0, 6-2.
Although Djokovic is 24-3 lifetime at this tournament with three titles, he heads into this week as a bit of an unknown commodity–if a world No. 1 can ever be deemed as such. He has struggled both mentally and physically since Wimbledon, and an arm injury has kept him from appearing since losing to Stan Wawrinka in the U.S. Open title match. Fognini gave himself a shot at the top seed by beating Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-5, 6-3 on Sunday. The Italian is still just 22-19 for the year and has plunged to No. 50 in the world. Unless Djokovic is well less than 100 percent, this one should be one-way traffic for the most part.
Pick: Djokovic in 2 losing 8-10 games
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Alexander Zverev vs. (8) Marin Cilic
Zverev’s hot streak continued in the Shanghai first round on Monday, when he took advantage of a rusty John Isner to dominate 6-4, 6-2. The 19-year-old German registers at 24th in the rankings and he boasts a 41-22 record for the season. That mark is highlighted by a recent title on the indoor hard courts of St. Petersburg, where he upset Wawrinka in a three-set final. Zverev is coming off a quarterfinal performance at the China Open (defeated Dominic Thiem and Jack Sock, fell to David Ferrer).
Up next for Zverev on Tuesday is a third career meeting with Cilic, and it will break a current 1-1 tie in the head-to-head series. Cilic prevailed 7-5, 7-6(3) last summer in Washington, D.C. before Zverev got the job done 7-6(4), 7-6(1) earlier this season on the indoor hard courts of Montpellier. The 11th-ranked Croat is in the midst of a solid but unspectacular season that has him in outside contention for a berth in the World Tour Finals. Thanks to a couple of withdrawals, Cilic managed to snag the No. 8 seed this week and with it the last of the eight opening-round byes. Based mostly on Zverev’s current form, Cilic may not last long in Shanghai.
Pick: Zverev in 3
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Joker in 2 losing 5-7 games and Alexander in 2, hopefully.
I will go with Cilic in three here, just a gut feeling and will come down to a few points, also depends how much Zverev has left in the tank, deep runs in his past 3 tournaments…
A 80% Novak will still beat Fognini, he will always gift you a few free games…
Don’t know what Cilic is doing out there; he always managed to lose from a winning position; against Goffin in Tokyo he’s like this. He’s now going to lose to A Zverev after winning the first set.
Goffin can be spectacular. And he must be bursting with confidence after beating Delpo. However he may be completely drained physically. Not sure about him for another win – even though it’s Paire next. Paire was court-side with his coach taking some intense notes.
Sascha keeps improving and he’s an aggressive competitor. I picked Cilic over Sascha — thinking it was time for Marin to get with it.