In the final sprint for important points for the ATP final in London in November, Dominic Thiem hopes for a top result at the upcoming 1000cc Masters in Shanghai.
The Austrian is on confrontation course with Juan Martin del Potro (No. 3) and defending champion Roger Federer. The St. Petersburg winner could face the strong Argentinian in the quarter-finals, the duel with the top seeded Swiss Grand Slam record champ would be a possible semi-final.
Shanghai has not yet been a good place for French Open finalist Thiem. The 25-year-old has never got past the second round of the hard court event, this time endowed with 9.219 million dollars. Thiem currently ranks seventh in the “Race to London” classification with 3525 points. The top eight players of the season qualify for the annual showdown in the o2 Arena.
Industry leader Rafael Nadal is missing because of his knee injury at the spectacle in Shanghai. Alexander Zverev, who is fifth in the London race (4365 points), was drawn in the lower half of the tableau at the ceremony at the Kunlun Hotel on Saturday.
The fifth in the world rankings, who recently failed early in the Beijing Tournament against Malek Jaziri (Tunisia), will have to deal with Denis Shapovalov (Canada) or the Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili after a walk-through at the start. 21-year-old Zverev has won three Masters tournaments in the 1000 series so far in his career.
In the quarter-finals Marin Cilic from Croatia could wait for the German number one, in the semi-finals theoretically the US Open and Wimbledon winner Novak Djokovic in second place could wait.
The Serbian, undefeated for 13 matches, will face either Maximilian Marterer (Nuremberg) or Jeremy Chardy (France) in the second round.
Here the tableau of Shanghai