Both Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray will be taking the court for the first time this week in Shanghai on Wednesday. Nadal is set for a second-round test against Viktor Troicki, while Murray is facing familiar foe Steve Johnson.
(4) Rafael Nadal vs. Viktor Troicki
Nadal and Troicki will be going head-to-head for the sixth time in their careers when they meet in the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Wednesday. All five of their previous encounters have gone the way of Nadal, who has won four times on hard courts and is 12-1 in total sets at Troicki’s expense. Their most competitive contest came on the Asian swing six years ago, when the Spaniard survived 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(7) in the Tokyo semifinals. They have faced each other only once since then–Nadal triumphed 7-6(3), 6-3 to lift a winner’s trophy last summer on the grass courts of Stuttgart.
This year has been a tough one for the 14-time Grand Slam champion, who has not yet locked up a berth in the World Tour Finals. Following a fourth-round U.S. Open loss to Lucas Pouille, Nadal’s Asian swing began with a quarterfinal setback at the hands of Grigor Dimitrov in Beijing. Troicki advanced through his Shanghai opener on Monday with a 6-2, 6-4 defeat of qualifier Lukas Rosol. The 31st-ranked Serb has been extremely active already this fall, with a quarterfinal showing in St. Petersburg, a semifinal finish in Chengdu, and a first-round loss to Fabio Fognini in Beijing. Troicki may be in decent form, but not to the extent that he can be expected to reverse the course of such poor results against Nadal.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 8 games or fewer
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Steve Johnson vs. (2) Andy Murray
Murray and Johnson will be squaring off for the third time in their careers on Wednesday. The head-to-head series stands at a perfect 2-0 in favor of Murray, who prevailed 6-2, 6-4 at this same event last fall (also in the second round) and 6-0, 4-6, 7-6(2) at this summer’s Rio Olympics. The second-ranked Scot went on to capture gold in Rio, highlighting a current stretch in which he has won four of six tournaments–Queen’s Club, Wimbledon, the Olympics, and Beijing. He hopes to continue the hot streak in Shanghai, where he is 17-3 lifetime with two titles and one runner-up finish.
Although Johnson’s 2016 record stands at a modest 29-24, he has undoubtedly been playing the best tennis of his career throughout the second half of the season. Among the 24th-ranked American’s results are a title in Nottingham, a fourth-round showing at Wimbledon, quarterfinal finishes in Newport, Rio, and Cincinnati, and a semifinal run in Washington, D.C. Johnson kicked off his Shanghai campaign on Monday by rolling over Martin Klizan 6-4, 6-3. Murray, of course, presents a much tougher test and this has to be considered one of the No. 2 seed’s favorite tournaments.
Pick: Murray in 2
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Rafa without his mojo is a sitting duck for anyone playing halfway decent tennis. Tragic to watch.
Like I said this wont be an easy match up at all… Rafa at the moment is like the West Indies of cricket, everyone can walk over them if they just apply themselves…
His 2nd serve is getting punished and just looking or waiting for Troicki to fade but it wont happen…
The break and the match is coming in this game, I can just feel it
i mean the dimi match was bad….but this right here…..this is just tragic
well it’s partly a result of the terrible performance against dimi isn’t it?? he’s always on edge after playing really badly..
It is, and to be honest, one can see how its affecting him, rally after rally instead of playing inside the baseline and finishing the points off by being way more aggressive!!!
Commies to Ricky and anyone else that Rafa beating anyone is a given at the moment.
Exactly, the whole match he’s unwilling to step in to attack, just stays back to rally and hoping for Troicki to miss! TBH, I’m simply fed up with Rafa playing like this! He’s just not making full use of what he has, he’s simply lost out there!
i just saw a rafa fan in the stand crying……loooool this is what he has reduce them to
Even if Rafa holds his serve he’ll lose the TB. Not helped by the umpire who has his knife into Rafa big time.
Agree, ill be amazed if he manages to win this TB unless all of a sudden he changes something or Troicki misses and feels the pressure…
Troicki has been smirking throughout the match. He can’t believe his luck 🙁
This tournament is brimming with upsets today. Is Rafa really gonna add his name to the list? What in the world. I’m not watching but he’s losing to Troicki right now? Damn.
hardly an upset right now benny. rafa will lose to almost anyone the way he is playing. he’s lost it mentally.
And that is that folks… Thanks for tuning in for another Rafa … whatever you wanna call it… Quite disturbing
I think the word you’re searching for is ‘debacle’ 🙁
It’s like second half of 2009 for Rafa all over again, losing to about anyone. So sad, that we have to witness all these again.
wish it was 2009! i always believed then that rafa would come back and win multiple slams in 2010. not now.
It’s just the way it is…Rafa needs some serious regrouping and some substantial changes…sad to warch him being humiliated by the opponents he owned… however, this did not come as a surprise to me…this is the pattern of the last few years…injuries, comebacks, loss of confidence, mental blockades, disappointments, lack of belief…these words describe Rafa…
Reckon that puts paid to his chances of getting to the O2. Just as well with his game in tatters – bearing in mind how badly he played there in 2009.
Well after he losing so often to any Tom, Dick or Harry, I’m quite immune to such expected losses by now. I expected this loss to Troicki, this is easier to swallow after that Dimi loss. I don’t expect him to go far here at Shanghai so not too disappointed, just sad that Rafa being reduced to such a sorry state.
These losses are unfortunately necessary to break Rafa’s delusion.
This result is not a shock. I spoke to it when Ricky said I was comparing Dimitrov to Troicki, who had been a combined 0-14 vs Rafa prior to last week.
Dimitrov lost to Pospisil for crying out loud.
It’s not about his opponent.
#NotRocketScience
you think that these losses will break rafa’s delusion?? honestly?
i will be astonished if anything changes from the usual practice practice practice mantra..
#NID
I just think that they are a necessary evil (not that it will work for sure – probably won’t if I were to guess).
You can only lead a horse to water.
Limping into the WTF by making a few quarters and semis certainly isn’t the way to substantive change.
Wake up Rafa. You are asleep – paralyzed by fear of change.
what would it take for rafa to make changes though??? even if he keeps losing he will probably say that he was where he wanted to be going into rg and injury stopped him. ergo all he and toni have to do is get back to that…
(that’s a contentious statement anyway as we don’t actually know that he wouldn’t have freaked out at rg – it’s entirely possible… )
Hawkeye,
I am in complete agreement with you! Well said!
ed said troicki was smirking during the match. one of the things i hate most is seeing journeymen smirk away while rafa self-combusts..
Has anyone heard or read Rafa’s presser? I thought someone twit that Rafa may shut down this season and work on his game. I certainly hope so,given not much progress he could get out of the current situation should he continue. Rafa may have changed his mind about qualifying for the WTF.
Luckystar (AT 12:23 PM,
A journalist tweeted: “Nadal hints he could shut down season…”
SH Rolex Masters tweeted: ¤¤ Rafael Nadal: “I have 2.5 months (until the end of the season) to put myself where I want to be [at the start of 2017]” ¤¤
https://twitter.com/SHRolexMasters/status/786175000755798016/photo/1
So, it’s not clear what he’s going to do.
I repeat: it’s not clear what Rafa is going to do this year.
Rafael Plaza (a Spanish Journalist):
¤¤ Nadal: “For me the season is almost over, and I accept that”.
Nadal: “I cannot say now what I gonna do during the next month. I’m not sure about my calendar”.
Nadal: “I’m not sure about the things that I need to do to try to be at 100% ready for the next year”. ¤¤