Beijing runner-up Rafael Nadal continues to pick up momentum during the Asian swing as he now finds himself in the Shanghai semifinals on Saturday. Standing in the Spaniard’s way of the title match is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Rafael Nadal and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be squaring off for the 12th time in their careers and for the first time in more than two years when they battle for a spot in the Shanghai Rolex Masters final on Saturday afternoon.
Nadal is leading the head-to-head series 8-3, including an impressive 6-2 on hard courts. Tsonga, however, has at least won two of their last five encounters dating back to the start of the 2011 season. They most recently faced each other on the clay courts of Monte-Carlo in 2013, when Nadal prevailed 6-3, 7-6(3). The two veterans have met twice during the fall swing; Nadal got the job done 7-5, 7-5 at the 2009 Paris Masters and Tsonga scored a 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-3 victory at the 2011 World Tour Finals.
The World Tour Finals is where Nadal is headed despite a disappointing 2015 campaign by his standards. Shanghai’s No. 8 seed owns just three titles and did not reach a single Grand Slam semifinal. But he is picking up momentum in a hurry in Asia. Nadal finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic in Beijing and so far this week he has taken out Ivo Karlovic, Milos Raonic, and Stan Wawrinka.
“Being in the semifinals is a great result for me,” the 14-time major champion commented. “I hadn’t played the semifinals on hard court all year and now I am playing two weeks in a row in the final rounds. That’s a big improvement for me. In terms of confidence, in terms of level of tennis, I am playing better. Very happy for that because I am working so hard.”
Tsonga is also gaining some much-needed confidence this fall. In part because of an injury-plagued start to the year, the 15th-ranked Frenchman had just 17 match wins to his credit heading into the U.S. Open. That event ended with a tough five-set quarterfinal loss to Marin Cilic, but Tsonga got right back in action to capture a title in Metz. He punched his ticket to the final four in Shanghai by defeating Tommy Robredo, Victor Estrella Burgos, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, and Kevin Anderson.
Although Tsonga benefited from Roger Federer’s loss to Ramos-Vinolas and arguably from Kei Nishikori’s setback against Anderson, the 16th seed has still needed a combined five hours and 24 minutes to survive his last two matches (2:44 against Ramos-Vinolas and 2:40 against Anderson). That is not a good recipe for success going into a showdown with Nadal.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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My take on the match is totally in line with how Rafa feels about it.
nadline10 says:
October 17, 2015 at 11:04 am
The damage was done in the 1st set when Rafa dropped his serve otherwise he would have won in straight sets.
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Rafa: ” If there is something I’m not happy about it’s the first 6 games; he had better court position than me.”
Rafa is not mentally ready to meet Djoker yet, he’s getting there but he needs to bed down the improvements he’s made on the psychological front first. He’s got the game but he needs to lose the nerves.
yep…
Serves over Nerves!!!!
@London Y, 9:28 pm
I love your posts…spot on!
My take on the match stands. I said specifically that Rafa missed a key opportunity to get even in that first set when he couldn’t convert those break points. However, it is not a given that he would have won the first set. Getting the break would only have gotten him even. It could have gone to a TB and he still might have lost. He could have been broken again.
Also, Rafa did not say that those missed opportunities were the reason why he lost the match. He just said he was not happy about those six games because Tsonga had the better court positioning.
The fact that Rafa came back so strong in that second set and bageled Tsonga, was a good sign. I do think it was key for him to hold serve early in the third set, especially since he was down 0-40. That kept him even in the set. Then late in the third set he had some tough luck when he missed a volley at net on break point. Just a few errors and that was it. Not a terrible thing by any means.
I distinctly remember saying that Rafa wasn’t at a high enough level to beat Novak in the Beijing final. It’s good to realize that there is more awareness that this is the case. He is definitely on the right track. More work needs to be done on that forehand. But the fact that Rafa wasn’t tired, the fact that he stayed in the match mentally and kept fighting and did his best, are all good things. I have confidence that he will get there.