Shanghai Masters | Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer advances; Nick Kyrgios fined for second-round walk-off
Title contenders Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer progressed into the third round of the Shanghai Masters with convincing wins over Jared Donaldson and Diego Schwartzman respectively. Nick Kyrgios was fined and denied his first-round prize money following his controversial second-round retirement.
Rafael Nadal stretched his winning run to 13 games on Wednesday as he overcame America’s Jared Donaldson with an easy 6-2, 6-1 victory. Nadal has already won six titles this year and the confidence showed as he wrapped up the game only within 53 minutes, which included 21 winners and five unforced errors.
Nadal has no intention of stopping anytime soon it seems. Having regained the world No 1 ranking earlier this year, the Spaniard is eyeing his first title in Shanghai that will be followed by the World Tour Finals as he plans to end the year on a high.
The US Open Champion is scheduled to meet Italy’s Fabio Fognini in the next round, who advanced to the third round with a win over France’s Lucas Pouille.
Second-seeded Roger Federer had a more complicated game against Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman to reach the third round as he won 7-6 (4), 6-4. The 36-year-old quite brilliantly held onto the chase in the hard-fought game after he gave away a break in the first set to get dragged into a tiebreak.
However, he retained his poise from then onwards, as he broke the serve straight away in the second set and marched on to win the game. It was his 14 ace that saw things off eventually as he scheduled a meeting with Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov in the third round. Dolgopolov comes into the game with a gruelling 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 6-4 win over Spain’s Feliciano Lopez.
In another game, Nick Kyrgios was in the thick of controversy yet again as the Australian left his opponent Steve Johnson and umpire Fergus Murphy confused by leaving the court abruptly following a first set tie-break loss. Though he credited it to a stomach bug, the player didn't consult a medic at any time of the game.
The Australian looked upset with the umpire after being given a point penalty for an audible obscenity during the tie-break, was heard saying he would quit if he lost the tie-break. It has not gone down too well with the administration and Kyrgios has since been stripped of his first-round prize money and fined an additional $10,000 (£7,500).
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