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I'll answer that when we get there. I'm planning to do a tribute post to recap his career, I figure he deserves it.
Shanghai Masters
One upset in the early rounds, with unseeded Ugljesa Svajnovic joining the top seven in the quarterfinals; a close two-set win over #8 Chinaglia got him there. Not a great draw for Sushant Chiba, who ran into K. Kaspar at that point, suffering his 10th defeat in 11 meetings 6-4, 6-2, and one of the more lopsided of the series. Stuart Pargeter lost a close one to Sbai, Gregory Mackenzie was dismissed by the 'other' Kaspar, and Svajnovic was handed a pair of breadsticks to chew on by Dudwadkar. On we go.
Top four then in the semis, and Hamal Sbai was Karl's equal for two sets, then faded in the third. On the other side, Mateo Kaspar was upset by Dudwadkar 7-5, 7-6(2), which combined with Mateo not defending a 500 title last week means he won't get back to #1 if the younger Kaspar takes the title. Ritwik Dudwadkar tried to play spoiler again, but for the second match in a row Karl 'No longer a Prince' Kaspar dominated the final set, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. He stays on top and now I have to find a new nickname for him, because it looks quite likely that he won't be removed for quite a while. One reason for that is Mateo has switched to doubles. Too early IMO; combined with the Masters events he's missed the last couple years, he's really missed out on a chance to further cement his legacy. To my mind, if you're a living legend and the clear #1 in the record books you have to keep setting that bar as high as possible as long as you are still a threat in the big events. That's really the only criticism I can make of hugoboy as a manager though.
I'm skipping the RACE rundown since it seems very unlikey to change over the last month. I'll be surprised if the Top 8 don't finish in the same order they are in now:
1. K. Kaspar
2. M. Kaspar
3. Dudwadkar
4. Sbai
5. Pargeter
6. Chiba
7. Mackenzie
8. Chinaglia
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