Shanghai Rolex Masters is the biggest dot on ATP circuit's radar during the Asian leg on hard court. Moreover, this Masters 1000 event may give a hint of how the battle for the world No. 1 seat will unfold next as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are leading the action with the Swiss tennis superstar seeking to close the gap on his rival. Both players delivered some solid tennis during their opening statement.
For Nadal is another hard court win after winning the title last week at China Open in Beijing while Roger Federer had to deal with the expectations and the unknown factor given the fact that he was playing his first ATP official rubber since the 2017 US Open.
Overall, it was a solid day for the top seeds with two exceptions; David Goffin (10 ATP) lost in straight sets to Gilles Simon while Dominic Thiem surrendered to Viktor Troicki after a three sets battle.
Nadal stormed past Jared Donaldson
The current world No. 1 Rafael Nadal had no troubles at all in defeating Jared Donaldson (56 ATP( of United States. With no common history at all, Nadal was the dominant actor dispatching Donaldson in straight sets 6-2 6-1 in a bit under an hour of play. The third round will bring the first big test for Nadal as he is set to face Fabio Fognini next.
Also in Nadal's quarter of the draw, Grigor Dimitrov went on some thin margins as he saved three match points before capping a win over Ryan Harrison (46 ATP).
Roger Federer battled through his first match since 2017 US Open
On the bottom half of the board, the world No. 2 Roger Federer took on Diego Schwartzman fro Argentina in what turned out to be an intriguing encounter. Federer did win in straight sets, but things were a bit more complicated than the scoreboard may indicate. The first set had Federer taking the initiative first only to see his opponent bouncing back.
The set went to a tie-break, and despite having a sloppy start, the 36-year-old tennis icon made the right adjustments to clinch the set. A bit of a let down in the first game of the second set basically cost Schwartzman the match. He got broken, and despite all of his efforts, he was unable to turn the table the other way around.
In the end, it's a good win for Federer, but his game seemed a bit rusty especially on the backhand side where the unforced errors kept flowing in out of his racket. He will face Alexandr Dolgopolov next as the Ukrainian edged Feliciano Lopez in the second round.
With Goffin out of the contest, Federer's quarter seems like an easy peak. If he gets past Dolgopolov, Federer will face either Richard Gasquet or Gilles Simon.
