[Brian Swartz]

Shanghai Masters

This tournament was a bit unique. The theme, although it's a bit of an early spoiler, was the consistent dashing of upset dreams. I'm not sure I've ever seen a big tournament in which the favorites escaped so many times, and the format of this report is a bit different than usual for that reason. The early rounds, which tend to be the kindest to seeds, were the toughest. Only one of the eight in play in the first round lost; Federer was knocked off, barely, by Garreth McCuskey whose resurgence continues. Shreya Ujjaval was among the best qualifiers, but converted just 1 of 7 break chances in a straight-sets loss to Mockler. In the second round, there were a pair of upset victims; Marcelo Herrera and Milan Farkas, the latter player reaching the Top 10 for the first time afterwards despite the early loss.

But that's where it ended. All three players to exit were low seeds. From there on out, every match from the third round on, all 15 of them, was won by the higher seed. At that point there were two that could have gone the other way. Thiago Herrera required a third-set tiebreak to get by McCuskey, and Benda took a close three-setter against rising Swede Elias Trulsen. The other six matches were much more one-sided.

In the quarterfinals it got even more interesting. Benda was tested a bit by Herrera and advanced, while Anil Mehul dropped a set before rallying against the ever-dangerous Radek Smitala. Both escaped, while Girsh and Iglar blasted their opponents easily.

The semifinals brought drama in both matches. Antonin Iglar's winning streak stretched to 23 against Girsh by the narrowest of margins, 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(2). Girsh had him on the ropes in the second set after stealing the first, but both players dropped serve multiple times prior to the tight tiebreaker. In the third there were no breaks, and after going up a mini-break at 2-1, Girsh lost six straight points and the match along with them. It was played dead-even, and was the first time he'd taken a set from the legend since last year at the same juncture here. A very encouraging effort, but still frustrating to get that close and not get the win. In the other match, Mehul just edged Benda 7-6(5), 7-6(5). The German continues to be more of a threat than he has any right to be, and could well have snagged the year-end #2 spot if he'd won here.

In the final, a fatigued Iglar found his way through another close one, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Anil Mehul actually slightly outplayed him, but dropped both break points he faced while converting just 1 of 7 on his own end, and that was that. With this, the Czech champion completed a perfect calendar year on hardcourt, something he's never done before -- and in his last two matches Sri Lanka's top two players each had ever chance to stop him and couldn't do it. A good tournament otherwhise but that is a real gut-shot. Six matches in the last three rounds went the distance, and a couple others were close -- the favorites were perfect however. Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes.


Elsewhere ...

Some last-minute entrants meant that Prakash Mooljee faces just as tough a field in the Tier-2 Tiburon challenger as the Tier-1 in Rennes. He was seeded 4th, but all of that ended up not mattering a hill of beans when he was upset in the first round by Djurdje Moicevic(DEU). It was a close loss against another up-and-coming player, a hardcourt specialist, and Moicevic went on to reach, and nearly win, a seedless final. All of that aside, it's still a disappointment to lose this early in a matchup he should usually win. Doubles did go better, as he qualified and made the quarterfinals -- this made the week not a total loss.