A pair of marquee semifinal matchups are on Saturday’s schedule at the Shanghai Masters. Roger Federer is going up against Juan Martin Del Potro, while Rafael Nadal is facing Marin Cilic. Del Potro, however, may be dealing with another wrist injury.
(16) Juan Martin Del Potro vs. (2) Roger Federer
Federer and Del Potro will be squaring off for the 23rd time in their careers and for the third time this season when they clash in the semifinals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Saturday. The head-to-head series stands at 16-6 in Federer’s favor, but Del Potro recently prevailed 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(8), 6-4 in the U.S. Open quarters. Federer had previously won three in a row at the Argentine’s expense, including via a 6-3, 6-4 decision at the Miami Open this spring.
Although the 36-year-old Swiss may not be in quite the same form that carried him to the Australian Open title and back-to-back trophies in Indian Wells and Miami, he is still flying high at No. 2 in the world and in distant contention for the year-end top ranking. Federer has advanced this week with straight-set defeats of Diego Schwartzman, Alexandr Dolgopolov, and Richard Gasquet. The script seems to be flipped from when these two competitors collided a couple of months ago in New York, where Federer was dealing with a back injury. Now it is Del Potro who is a question mark, as he suffered a fall against Viktor Troicki on Friday and may have re-injured his left wrist. The 16th seed could be running on fumes, anyway, because he required three tough sets to get past both Troicki and Alexander Zverev. All signs point to Federer avenging his U.S. Open loss to Del Potro.
Pick: Federer in 2
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(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (4) Marin Cilic
Are we in line for a Nadal vs. Federer showdown, after it was derailed by Del Potro at Flushing Meadows? It’s possible, but Nadal may have an especially tough one on his hands against Cilic. The fifth-ranked Croat, who will climb to a new career-high mark of No. 4 next week, is 39-16 this season with a runner-up performance at Wimbledon. He is 8-1 since the U.S. Open, highlighted by a semifinal showing last week in Tokyo preceding straight-set wins in Shanghai over Kyle Edmund, Steve Johnson, and Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Cilic is a mediocre 1-4 lifetime against Nadal heading into Saturday’s contest, but his lone victory came during the Asian swing (albeit way back in 2009, when he cruised 6-1, 6-3 in Beijing). Of course, this is not the same Nadal as the one who limped down the stretch of the 2009 campaign. The top-ranked Spaniard is 15-0 in his last 15 matches, a stretch that includes titles at the U.S. Open and in Beijing. Two quick outings against Jared Donaldson and Fabio Fognini were just what the doctor orderer earlier this week, but Nadal needed two hours and 32 minutes to scrape past Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3 on Friday. When playing well, as he is now, Cilic has the game that can trouble Nadal–serve huge and punish any short balls with flat groundstrokes. On a fast surface against an opponent who may be fatigued, the underdog may be able to execute that plan to perfection.
Pick: Cilic in 3
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I hope Rafa is watching this match. Delpo looks scarily good even though Fed isn’t playing all that well. Rafa has to be ready for Delpo’s big serve if it’s him in the final.
Personally, I think Rafa is post-surgery DelPo’s kryptonite… I think Rafa’s old “break down the other player’s weaker backhand with his CC forehand” method works magic against post-surgery DelPo. It didn’t used to work that well when DelPo had a great two-handed backhand. Now Rafa can just play DelPo like he used to play Fed- pound away at the weak backhand and be aggressive in the returns. I don’t see any player without a backhand being able to beat Rafa right now.
Well Delpo doing well. But the Chinese crowd is too disrespectful to Delpo. Yelling when he misses first serve. Not good.
And he is pissed!! But should not let it get to him!! Just play on, match was on his racket, choops!!
Wow. Fed just cannot convert. If DelPo ends up holding here like I suspect he will, he is winning this match in straight sets…
I spoke too soon…
Y is Delpo still annoyed, lol, he’s let it affect his game!!
Now they have asked the crowd to keep quiet in Chinese. And the commentary saying it’s Delpo’s fault. Intolerable commies.
The crowd knew exactly what del potro was complaining about but they so want Roger to win they don’t care. Meanwhile, delpotro has allowed that to disrupt his game, so silly of him!!
Delpo never complains when the Argentinians turn up in the USA and at home and make a raucous noise during his matches.
Nadline
Is there any way we could ask for the commies to be trained to say Argentinians? To a man they persist on calling them Argentines. Or am I being a grumpy old foggy?
Send them a tweet. @markpetchey; @marcus_buckland. I sent Peter Fleming one the other day about the hyperbole over Kyrgios and he replied.
1 all in the 3rd, why do I have the feeling the match is over and we have another Fedal final?
I think cheering your fav. Player is fine, but whistling between first and second serves of the opponent is not good. Didn’t see Argentians do that. They would cheer Delpo but not try to disrupt opponents serve.
Anyway, it’s not happening now. And Delpo is in trouble.
Fed breaks. Unless he has some weird collapse like at the US Open, looks like we’re getting that Fedal final. 🙂
Just came back home. Looks like Fed is taking this. Delpo was hitting his forehand pretty well though.
Uh oh… Fed might be throwing it away.
The use of slice backhand was so good from Fed in these last few games!
So, there we go: FEDAL final!
4th one of the season and this one is perhaps on the fastest court on the ATP tour. Roger’s finally found his rhythm and he ended this match on a very high note. Rafa’s on a 16-match winning streak and is playing arguably his best tennis ever on these fast courts.
I really hope Rafa can do it here. It will be a huge win for him given how people have always dimissed his chances in this part of the season.
If this were the USO final, I would picked Rafa without a doubt but this one is tricky.
Agree with you
1. Roger’s first serve and his inside-out forehand have always scared me in the past on these fasts surfaces. He will have those going for him tomorrow but Rafa is returning really well and getting great length on his running forehand CC. This will be interesting to watch.
2. The biggest problem against Roger for Rafa in the earlier part of the season was the swiss player’s RETURN OF SERVE. To me this was a bigger problem than his backhand. Rafa is serving better now and Roger won’t be able to pounce on the Rafa second serve like he did in Indian Wells but he will surely go for that play.
3. Rafa should be the more confident player going into this match but Roger’s victories over Rafa this year will help him have enough confidence. He will freely play his game and think that the conditions will suit his brand of tennis more.
4. Rafa MUST convert BP’s better and be more focused. Fed is a different beast on quick hard courts. I remember 2013 Cincinnati when Roger was not playing too well but he still put up a great show in the match against Rafa and it was a tough 3-set contest. I do think Rafa’s playing better now but his intensity and focus has to be like the Beijing final.
Fed would try to replicate his IW performance. He will try to his as many bakchnd drive/topspin returns as he can and take time away from Rafa so unlcess Rafa gets sharp angles on his slider serves, he will be under pressure from Roger.
I think Rafa had better patterns of play in Miami but his execution was poor. He has the confidence to make it better this time. His CC backhand is ON FIRE but he has to be careful because this year, I’ve seen Roger go for hid DTL forehand more and Rafa found it difficult to defend against that shot. Roger’s backhand is obviouslya bigger problem now so Rafa must avoid hitting run-around forehands that don’t have much on them and simply open the court for Fed’s CC backhand which is now a more powerful shot.
I think the momentum Rafa’s carrying might just enable him to get this win in 3 sets. If the Rafa of Beijing final shows up, I will be extremely confident that might be expecting too much given the recent lapses in focus he has had in his last two matches.
Fed won. Stanley Got his Wish – Fedal Final. Wish rafa can win his First Master during this part of the year but fed too good on fast& hard courts. Hope rafa does not have mental blocks.Like them both
Rafa won the Madrid masters in 2005, which was played during this exact time of year. So it would be his second Masters title post-US Open.
I think Rafa’s level has dropped alittle bit , he is now playing for 2 weeks so he is less gassed and had 2 tough matches ….. I am with Rafa but I think Roger will win this 🙁
watched highlights of Rafa-Cilic. I thought Marin played a great match! he has hitting both his forehand and the backhand quite strongly and his serve was pretty effective. Rafa, while not at the level he on in Beijing final, played a great match to win this in 2 sets. He should have won 6-4 but it is okay. Just got to be a tad more focused tomorrow!
Now, is rafa a bit tired? I think there will be plenty of adrenaline tomorrow and Rafa’s momentum should give him enough energy to fight this one out. Fed won’t keep it very physical anyway so Rafa should be fine I guess. It is also good that he finished his match earlier.
I think Cilic played better than Delpo in their respective SFs. Cilic was not only serving well but also hitting well and moving to the net to win points there successfully. Delpo served well but he tend to overhit his FH (and his FH was very scary!).
Anyway, I think Rafa can deal with Fed tomorrow, he’s striking the ball very well, not missing much, he’ll force errors out of Fed.
He’s returning really well and that gives me more hope. The improved second serve will also hold up better against Fed’s onslaught.
I said after Miami that Rafa might suffer one or two more losses but will tweak his game soon to hand out defeats to Fed. They couldn’t face each other for so long and I think Rafa’s improved some areas of his game enough as compared to the AO Rafa so handle Fed. How this match up will play out on this fast court, let’s see tomorrow!
LOL you say Del Po wasn’t overhitting meanwhile Cilic hits 40 unforced errors. Plus Del Po played great in that first set and was hitting well with success too. 😅🤦♂️
Was overhitting*
There are 3 intangibles here that will make a big difference
Rafa is going for his first Shanghai title and that will bring in the nerves.
This court is feds most favorite and is playing very fast.
Rafa is on a 3 match losing streak against Roger.
I hope Rafa wins but my head says Roger.
As I’ve said before, normally Fed has the advantage over Rafa in these conditions, but not this time. I think that 36 is just too told to maintain a high level through a whole season, even when he skipped a bunch of tournaments. In the first half of the season, he was so fresh and was able to go all out on the attack while still being able to move well. He very clearly just doesn’t have that spring in his step like he did in the first half. And to beat Rafa when he’s playing this well, on any surface, you need a serious spring in your step! Sure, he could manage to play some really great attacking tennis and win the title. I just don’t see it happening. I will say Rafa in 3. Basically, I believe that the match is more on Rafa’s racquet than Fed’s this time, which is very rare in a court like this. I know I could be wrong, but I just feel like 36 year-old guys struggle to stay fresh, and you MUST be fresh against Rafa playing like this. History would point to Fed to win this match, while recent form points to Rafa. In this case, recent form trumps history. So yeah, Rafa for his maiden title in Shanghai, in 3.