Shanghai Rolex Masters 2010: Preview of last two matches on Friday
Four of the top five contenders will be in action for the semi-final berths at the 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters on Friday.
The thirteen seed Jurgen Melzer, who made his way into the quarters after getting the better of world number one, Rafael Nadal, will meet Juan Monaco from Argentina. Melzer is currently ranked number twelve in the world and is
playing in the quarters or better on the eleventh occasion in 2010.
He stands at a match record of 46-23 on the season. The player is coming off his second round exit at Tokyo where he was defeated by Troicki in straight sets. He had previously made his way into the semi-finals at Zagreb, Dubai
and French Open this season. The left hander captured his last ATP World Tour crown on his home soil, Vienna, back in 2009.
On the other hand, the twenty six year old Monaco is appearing in the quarters on the fifth occasion after having recorded victories over Florent Serra, Thiemo de Bakker and Mischa Zverev earlier in the tournament. He was defeated
in the opening round at the hands of Viktor back in 2009.
The Tandil native owns a match record of 17-7 on the year and he previously reached the quarters or better in four of his first seven events. In May this year, he also assisted his country in winning the ATP World Team Championship
crown at Duesseldorf after bundling out Sam Querrey in the title battle.
Jurgen will definitely try his best to repeat his stunning performance by beating Monaco for the second straight week. Although, Monaco has a 4-1 head to head lead however all those victories came on clay.
In the other important battle of the day, the Swiss tennis maestro, Roger Federer and world number five, Robin Soderling will face each other for a semi-final berth at Shanghai. The twenty nine year old Roger had triumphed in their
first twelve clashes before Robin at last got on the board, defeating the Swiss in the final eight at French open back in June.
The top Swede enters with a match record of 5-1 and he along with Novak Djokovic is one of the two contenders to come back to the quarters. He did not even miss a single set back in 2009 in his first three clashes before eventually
falling to Feliciano Lopez in the quarters.
The twenty five year old Soderling is making his twelfth quarter or better appearance in 2010. He is coming off his quarter final run at the China Open last week. If the Swede successfully makes his way into the semi-finals at
Shanghai, he will also qualify for the year ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London for the second time in a row and will register his name as the fifth player in the elite eight man field. He jumped into the top ten back in 2009 and has not dropped
out since then.
Federer, on the other hand, made his championship debut on Wednesday with a two setter victory over John Isner and repeated his stunning performance against Andreas Seppi on Thursday. He had also posted some solid results at the
Qizhong Tennis Center, when it staged the Tennis Masters Cup from 2005 to 2008.
The Swiss is currently playing in his eleventh quarter or better in the fourteenth tournament of the year. He enjoys a match record of 46-11 this season. This is his first championship since making his way into the semi-final round
of the United States Open where Federer was eventually crushed by Djokovic last month.
Other players to take the court on Friday would include Andy Murray as well. He will play the opening match of the day against Jo Wilfried Tsonga followed by another quarter final clash between Guliiermo Garcia Lopez and Tomas
Berdych later in the afternoon.
Tags: