Federer advances in Shanghai Masters Cup

SHANGHAI (China)—Roger Federer survived his second match unscathed at the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup on Tuesday, a big relief for organizers of the injury-hit tournament. Two-time defending champion Federer, the only top-five ranked player left in the draw, held on for a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (4) win over sixth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic to extend his winning stretch to 33 matches.
He had two match points on Ljubicic’s serve in the ninth game of the third set and one on his own serve in the next before the No. 8-ranked Croat broke back and took a 6-5 lead. Federer forced a tiebreaker and jumped to a 3-0 lead with consecutive aces.
After giving the mini break back at 4-3, he closed out with a powerful serve to set up match point, his fourth, and then clinched it with a backhand winner down the line. Expectations on Federer are usually high, but the scale took on a new dimension after second-ranked Rafael Nadal and No. 5 Andre Agassi withdrew within an hour of each other on Monday with foot and ankle injuries.
No. 3 Andy Roddick, No. 4 Lleyton Hewitt and Australian Open winner Marat Safin had already withdrawn before the tournament. Nadal pulled out while Agassi was on court, losing to Nikolay Davydenko. Agassi quit after his upset loss, citing an injured left ankle and upsetting local tournament organizers.
Federer came into the tournament after six weeks off with an injured right ankle. He had a comeback win over David Nalbandian in his opening match Sunday and had to some difficult moments against Ljubicic after dominating the first set.
Ljubicic saved two break points in his opening service game of the second set, and then broke Federer for a 3-1 lead, converting his first break-point chance of the match. Federer rallied in the third, working Ljubicic around the court with a combination of deft backhands and powerful ground strokes and forcing errors until he got a break-point chance in the fifth game.
Ljubicic double-faulted to give Federer a 3-2 lead. Federer won eight straight points on his serve and led 5-3 before Ljubicic broke back in a three-game winning roll. Already assured of the year-end No. 1 ranking, Federer’s next aim is to equal John McEnroe’s Open era record (82-3) for winning percentage in a season.
He improved to 79-3 on Tuesday and has one round-robin match and likely a semifinal and final remaining here. Argentineans Gillermo Coria and Nalbandian were playing later Tuesday.
The top two players in the Red Group advance to the semifinals against the top two in the Gold Group, which is now missing Nadal and Agassi. Mariano Puerta replaced Nadal at short notice and lost to Gaston Gaudio. Fernando Gonzalez of Chile will take Agassi’s place in two remaining round-robin matches.
Agassi’s record in Shanghai is now 0-4. He lost in the first round of an ATP tournament here in 2001 and withdrew from the 2002 Masters Cup, blaming a hip injury, after two losses. Wang Liqun, deputy director of the organizing committee, told a news conference Tuesday that Agassi should have notified tournament officials before quitting.
“He doesn’t want to make any personal comments on Andre Agassi’s decision, however he certainly is not appreciative of what he did, and particularly because he actually made the sudden announcement without notifying anyone,” an interpreter said of Wang’s comments.
Qin Weichang, director of the organizing committee, agreed. “Frankly, he’s extremely popular in Shanghai, particularly among female fans. We, therefore, have already conveyed in talks with the ATP, asking them to convey to Andre Agassi that he needs to probably return this kind of favor, react to this kind of strong passion from the audience and show his professionalism here”.—Agencies