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October 13, 2016

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Home » Sports » Tennis

Nadal makes early exit, Simon ends Wu run

By Ma Yue | October 13, 2016, Thursday | Print Edition

FOURTH-SEEDED Rafael Nadal made an early exit from the Shanghai Rolex Masters after losing 3-6, 6-7 (3) to Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in his opening match yesterday.

Chinese fans brandished pictures of Nadal but some were left in tears as the 14-time grand slam champion was well beaten in the second round.

“For me this season is almost over,” said the Spaniard. “It has been a tough season for me. I need to spend time with my team and my uncle, too, and make adjustments in training. Keep competing is not the solution... and I need to work on my forehand.”

Nadal is currently seventh in the points ranking for the year-end ATP World Tour Finals in London but he is already looking forward to the next season.

“I will practice more and keep playing. I have 2-1/2 months to pull myself together and figure things out.”

Second seed Andy Murray continued his fine form which saw win the China Open in Beijing last Sunday; the Scot beating American Steve Johnson 6-3, 6-2 to reach the third round.

China interest at this year’s event came to an end after local boy Wu Di lost 2-6, 2-6 to world No. 32 Gilles Simon in the second round on center court. It was the first time the 25-year-old Wu had reached the second round at the ATP 1000 event.

“He is competent and smart,” Wu said about Simon after their first ever match. “I have been learning from his playing style, though he doesn’t know me well.”

The No. 182nd ranked wildcarder overcame the tournament’s 16th seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay in the first round on Sunday but the magic deserted him yesterday though he began confidently, breaking Simon in his opening service game to go 2-0 up. The gap between the two players showed up quickly as Simon, who was runner-up to Roger Federer in 2014, dominated the next six games to close the first set.

Coming into the second set, each player won their first service game. Despite the one-sided support from home fans, Wu allowed Simon to win the next three games before pulling one back to make it 2-4. The Frenchman then took charge, sealing the match in 69 minutes.

“It was a tough start for me,” Simon said after the match. “Di had a great start breaking me in the first game. Then I managed to turn it around.”

With his victory on Sunday, Wu overtook Zhang Ze (197) to become the current top-ranking Chinese player in the ATP standings. However, he hardly felt happy about it.

“Me and Zhang have switched positions often, but never truly raised our level. Chinese male players have been doing averagely over the past few years without making any progress.”

Wu claimed that lack of international competition experience had been a major problem for Chinese players for long.

Elsewhere, German qualifier Mischa Zverev needed only 48 minutes to beat 12th seed Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 6-1; the Australian departing to boos after perhaps the most spectacular meltdown of his volatile career.

Kyrgios lashed out at fans and insisted “I don’t owe them anything” after he was booed off court.

The hot-headed world No. 14 clashed with the chair umpire and a heckler and admitted not trying after he lost to Zverev, the world No. 110.

Kyrgios, who won the Japan Open title on Sunday, was slapped with a code violation for an audible obscenity and was warned to play properly after he patted a child-like serve into his opponent’s court.

He later admitted “taking the easy way out” after he gave up on several points during the match, including one Zverev serve which he walked away from before it had landed.

But when asked whether he could understand why fans were upset, he shot back: “Not at all.

“I feel like if they knew what they were talking about they’d be on the tennis court and being successful, as well.

“No, I can’t really understand it at all. They don’t know what I’m going through.”

In other second-round matches, fifth seed Milos Raonic of Canada beat Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-2, 6-4; Spain’s Marcel Granollers pulled off a stunner by beating seventh-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1); Belgian David Goffin accounted for France’s Benoit Paire 6-1, 7-6 (0); American Jack Sock outlasted Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; and third seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland eased past 21-year-old British qualifier Kyle Edmund 6-3, 6-4. He will take on Simon in the third round.

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