PETE ZIEBRON
Following his Masters 1000 win in Montreal in August, #2 Andy Murray had his sights on finishing 2009 as the #1 player in the world. Murray now stands at #4 and inactive for the Shanghai Masters 1000 due to a wrist injury.
Meanwhile, world #1 Roger Federer has also opted out of the Shanghai Masters, citing fatigue following a laborious summer where he won Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the Cincinnati Masters while concurrently becoming a father for the first time.
The majority of the other top players are stumbling into Shanghai: #2 Rafael Nadal won only 4 games in the Tokyo semifinals last week against Marin Cilic. US Open Champion Juan Martin del Potro lost in the first round in Tokyo to French qualifier, Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Andy Roddick also lost to a qualifier in Beijing, Polish upstart Lukasz Kubot. Both Roger-Vasselin and Kubot are ranked outside of the top 100.
However, despite the absence of Murray and Federer and the poor showings from the majority of the rest of the top players last week in Asia, Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga arrive in Shanghai celebrating wins in Beijing and Tokyo respectively and will seek to continue their winning ways. Djokovic, the new #3 player in the world has already appeared in 4 Masters 1000 Finals in 2009, losing each time.
The fact that Federer and Murray are not appearing in Shanghai and other notables struggled in match play last week certainly provides excellent opportunities for the remainder of the field to earn valuable tour points in this Masters 1000 tournament, which concludes the ATP tour’s three week schedule in Asia.
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