Djokovic Cruises In Shanghai Opener, Del Potro Out; Nadal, Murray Wednesday

In his first match since losing in the US Open finals to Stan Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic rolled at the Shanghai Masters defeating Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-3. The World No. 1 has now won 39 of his last 40 matches in Asia including the Shanghai title last year and three of the last four.

“I was just pleased to be back on the court, considering I skipped Beijing that I planned to play. I had great memories and success in the past in this tournament, on this court,” Djokovic said. “I was just trying to focus on my game and things that I worked on the last couple of weeks.

“As I said before, it’s very simple. I try to look at things from a different perspective, from a more human perspective rather than from a perspective of a professional tennis player,” he added. “When I get on the court, of course I want to give my best and eventually try to win the match, but that comes as a consequence of how I feel and how I approach, how I prepare, just a general mindset and approach.”

Next for Novak will be either Grigor Dimitrov or Vasek Pospisil who will play tomorrow.

Former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro was dismissed by David Goffin 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

“He started to return much better in the second and in the third set,” del Potro said. “Then I tried to make winners more often but I made mistakes. At the end of the match, I made mistakes with my forehand in important moments, and I think he took all the chances to win the match.

“Hopefully I can be better during the next two tournaments,” he said. “We have great tournaments to play and I’m still having a chance to go up in the rankings and be in better position for the next season.”

“It’s not easy when you travel a lot and you spend time away from home and you cannot share moments with your friends, family,” he said. “But I’m so happy doing this. I missed it a lot when I was injured, and I’m looking forward to be on tour for more years.”

One US Open champion was upset when Marin Cilic was ousted by 19-year-old Alexander Zverev 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. The German Zverev has wins in the last month over Tomas Berdych, Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem, Jack Sock, John Isner and now Cilic.

On Thursday he’ll meet 2015 finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round.

Gael Monfils also advanced the to third round while Jack Sock, Nick Kyrgios, Lucas Pouille and Feliciano Lopez were among those winning first round matches earlier.

On tap Wednesday, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray return to action. Nadal will meet Serbian Viktor Troicki.

“The goal is just try to finish the season the better way possible,” Nadal said. “Having very painful injury in the worst moment of the year, it’s tough to be back and especially when you are back and still with pain. You need to be back because of events that you cannot miss, but that’s it.”

Beijing winner Murray meets American Steve Johnson.

“I’m very happy with how it’s going,” Murray said. “Beijing worked out well. In the end I didn’t have massive expectations there as I arrived very late and hadn’t been practicing much. So, you know, managed to get through my first couple of matches and then played really well at the end of the event, so that was good.”

WEDNESDAY SHANGHAI SCHEDULE
STADIUM start 1:00 pm
[Q] K. Edmund (GBR) vs [3] S. Wawrinka (SUI)
[WC] D. Wu (CHN) vs G. Simon (FRA)

Not Before 6:00 pm
[4] R. Nadal (ESP) vs V. Troicki (SRB)

Not Before 8:00 pm
S. Johnson (USA) vs [2] A. Murray (GBR)