Alexander Zverev extended his recent hot streak when he upset eighth-seeded Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in round two of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Tuesday. Zverev faced just one break point–and saved it–in the final two sets before advancing in one hour and 54 minutes.
Thus continues the 19-year-old German’s scintillating fall form, which carried him to his first ATP title in St. Petersburg and to the quarterfinals in Beijing. Prior to ousting Cilic in Shanghai, Zverev cruised past John Isner 6-4, 6-2 in the opening round.
As for Cilic, the setback puts a considerable dent in his bid to qualify for the World Tour Finals. The 11th-ranked Croat currently finds himself in the 10th position in the race to London and he will be 615 points back of the all-important No. 8 spot (held by Dominic Thiem) at the end of this week. Tomas Berdych (290 points ahead of Cilic) is the first alternate as it stands right now.
Cilic’s pain is a gain for London hopefuls David Goffin and Nick Kyrgios. Both men still have plenty of work to do in order to get themselves in serious contention, but they reached last week’s Tokyo final to enhance their standing (Kyrgios triumphed 7-5 in the third). They continued their winning ways on Tuesday in Shanghai, with Goffin overcoming Juan Martin Del Potro 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 and Kyrgios easing past Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-4.
Goffin, who would surpass Cilic in the race to the World Tour Finals with one more win in Shanghai, is 11th–one place ahead of No. 12 Kyrgios. Each player, however, must capture the Shanghai title in order to overtake Thiem.
“He’s playing great,” Del Potro said of Goffin. “He made finals last week. He’s so fast on the baseline. I think he’s a great player to play. But anyways, I was close to winning. I played a good match. For me, it has been a great season–trying to do a good comeback after many injuries. This is just a match.”
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Goffin is far more consistent and mentally solid. But Paire can come out with stunningly great performances every now and then. Hope Goffin wins but Paire might like his chances in this one, he’s 2-0 over the Belgian.
Allez Goffin!
Nick and Sascha have been outstanding. Nick’s next opponent is Mischa Zverev and should be another win for Nick. Sascha vs Tsonga? That’s going to be new challenge for the teenager if Jo is healthy and playing at a good level.
The third set from 5-5 Delpo serving to the last 3 point of the set – Delpo had a chance but those last 3 points were pure genius clutch from David Goffin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmZxYs4MvH0
Great win for Zverev. He’s on a roll. I really should start picking him more. Of course I picked him over Ferrer in Beijing and he actually lost which was borderline shocking at this point. I like Zverev and hope he makes a deep run here like Ricky predicted. Usually I like to pick the young guns to do well especially when they’re as good as Zverev. I don’t really get why I’ve been picking against him more so than not. It’s probably partially due to the fact that he plays lots of guys who I’m big fans of like Isner and Cilic and you know me with my subconscious bias. But at this point it looks like Zverev is going to be a future slam champion and world number one and could actually crack top 10 early next year at the rate he’s going. His improvement and fitness and sheer talent is insane. Great demeanor on court too. Without a doubt a future top 5 player if not beyond that. I’ll probably pick him over Tsonga but with my luck he’ll lose then ?
He’s not losing to Wilfried
Woooooot! I like it.
#HerbertWillWin
#DejaVuAllOverAgain
Looks like Zev Minor has inspired Zev Major to raise his level. He has just demolished Kyrgios in straight sets – that or Curious tanked the match.
At least that puts paid to any hope he might have been harbouring of making it to the O2 for which I personally am thankful.