Del Potro stuns Nadal to set up Novak final
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Novak Djokovic is just one win away from defending his Shanghai Rolex Masters title after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 7-5 in the semifinals yesterday. And standing in his way is Juan Martin del Potro, the Argentine having ambushed Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-4 last night.
The Spaniard was hoping to celebrate his return to the top of the ATP ranking by winning an 11th title of this year.
But, under windy conditions at Qizhong Tennis Center, the second seed realized what a battle he had on hand after his opponent raced to a 4-0 lead in the first set before claiming it with a scorching ace.
Nadal almost broke the sixth seed for the first time when leading 2-1 in the second set before being denied by a Hawkeye review. The Spaniard never recovered and was overshadowed by del Potro in a career-best performance. Nadal’s long backhand return gifted double match point to the Argentine, who needed only one powerful serve to pack things up, sealing the match in just 45 minutes.
“I could have done better. He is a player who was better than me tonight, so it’s fair,” said Nadal. “I can go home with the feeling that I didn’t play bad. I would not say (it’s) luck, but he went through lots of important points, playing at the limit and was able to keep touching lines, with no mistakes.”
The French and US Open champion has never won a title in Shanghai, either in the Masters Cup or ATP 1000 events, while his main opponents — Roger Federer, Djokovic and Andy Murray — have all been crowned twice here.
Del Potro, who saved all six break points last night, was suffering from fever earlier this week which forced him to withdraw from the doubles. But he played solid in seeing off Tommy Haas (who retired) and Nicolas Almagro to reach the last four and will now challenge defending champion Djokovic, who has a 9-3 head-to-head edge.
The two played against each other once in Shanghai during the 2008 Masters Cup, when the Serb won in straight sets.
Going into his semifinal, Djokovic had an 8-0 record against Tsonga and the Serb powered into a 3-0 lead thanks to early aces and successive double faults from his opponent. He then broke the Frenchman twice to take the set 6-2.
It’s the first set Tsonga had dropped in Shanghai, where the seventh seed reached the last four for the first time.
The second set went to serve until Djokovic broke in the sixth game to lead 4-2. Tsonga broke back, thanks to a searing return which was called in after a review. The Serb, irritated by the call, continued arguing with the referee during the break. However, Djokovic kept his cool to take a 6-5 lead before making good use of his second match point to punch his ticket to the final.
“It’s a big win for me today. Jo was serving well and he has been winning every match comfortably in this tournament,” said Djokovic, who extended his win streak in China to 19 matches, including titles in Beijing in 2012 and 2013 and Shanghai last year. “I just feel nice being here in China. There’s some good, positive energy around these tournaments.”
Djokovic had a 19-year-old Chinese player, identified as “Sonny,” as his training partner this week, and the Serb was full of praise for the youngster.
He also aired some thoughts on the sport’s development in China, especially male players. “China does not have a big tennis tradition, just like it was in Serbia. But for us it happened that we all kind of succeeded, four or five players, at the same time.”
Djokovic said that the system and an organization established for a certain sport can help in the initial stages of player development, pushing players towards the professional world. “It’s obvious that the bigger the amount of tournaments, and in different categories, the more possibilities for local players to prove themselves and slowly move up the ladder.”
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