World No. 1 Rafael Nadal grabbed a spot in the semifinals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters with a 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3 win over sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov Friday. Nadal defeated Dimitrov for the second straight time in as many weeks to arrange a semifinal clash with fourth seed Marin Cilic. The victory moved Nadal closer to his 31st career ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy and further strengthened his bid to become the year-end No. 1 in the ATP Rankings for the fourth time. Nadal also finished No. 1 in 2008, 2010 and 2013.
The win also extended Nadal’s winning run to 15 matches, improving his record this year to an ATP World Tour-best 64-9.
Nadal now has 870 career match wins, good for No. 6 on the Open Era list behind leaders Andre Agassi and Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer, Ivan Lendl, Guillermo Vilas and John McEnroe. When asked about his semifinal showdown, Nadal said Cilic is a dangerous player, especially on hard courts. Nadal leads Cilic 4-1 in their head-to-head matchups, winning their last four encounters. Cilic defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas in straight sets to make it to the semifinals.
Federer also makes it to semifinals
World No. 2 Federer also reached the semifinals with a straight-set win over Richard Gasquet. Federer struggled early against Gasquet, trailing by 3-2 before finally finding his groove, breaking his opponent at 5-5 to take the lead and eventually the opening set.
Gasquet gave Federer a good fight in the second set, tying the game at 3-3. However, the Swiss tennis superstar broke him in the next game and never looked back from there as he finished the match in one hour and 18 minutes.
Next up for Federer is No. 16 seed Juan Martin del Potro, who defeated Victor Troicki in three sets.
Federer said he’s hoping that del Potro is alright after hurting his wrist during his clash against Troicki. A reporter informed Federer that del Potro went to the hospital to have his wrist checked via MRI. Federer has a 16-6 record against del Potro, winning three of their last four matches. However, del Potro’s victory came in a major even after he eliminated Federer in the quarterfinals of the US Open.
Thiem qualifies for ATP season-ending event
For the second straight year, Dominic Thiem of Austria made it to the Nitto ATP Finals, which will be played from November 12 to 19 at The O2 in London. Thiem is the fourth player to book a spot in the season-ending tournament, joining Nadal, Federer and Alexander Zverev in the 2017 field. There are four places up for grabs four weeks before the event.
