Shanghai Masters Day Three Tips: Simon defeat makes third Federer title unlikely

Events / Ben Caudell / 10 November 2008 / Leave a Comment

The young Frenchman's shock win has thrown the Shanghai Masters wide open, says Ben Caudell as he looks ahead to the Day Three match-ups...

Gilles Simon's stunning three set victory over Roger Federer makes it a difficult for the Swiss to now qualify let alone win a third consecutive Shanghai Masters Cup.

As predicted in yesterday's column, Simon has nothing to lose and everything to gain and would make a tricky opponent for all players in the Red Group'. This means both my predictions were correct, backing over 20.5 games and the +4.5 Game Handicap on Simon.

So, on to Wednesday's selection's with two interesting games involving the two losers and the two winners of the first group matches battling it out to secure qualification.

Juan Martin Del Potro v Jo Wilfred Tsonga:

This is a must win for both players if they are to qualify from the Gold Group and a tough one to call. Tsonga has been in great form recently after winning the Paris Masters defeating the likes of Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, and David Nalbandian; however his most recent loss in a final set tie-break against a dogged Nikolai Davydenko on Sunday may have dented his confidence.

Del Potro also made a losing start to his Master Series Cup debt against Novak Djokovic and might be more focused on his upcoming Davis Cup final. With Tsonga having the better record against top 10 players (7-3) and the fact that Del Potro needs to be fit for his Davis Cup final, I can't see past a Tsonga win.

Selection: Back Tsonga @ 1.7

Novak Djokovic v Nikolai Davydenko

Surprisingly these two have only ever played against each other once before, a Davis cup match in which Djokovic retired due to exhaustion at the start of the fourth set. Both players won their first group matches and the winner of this will definitely qualify into the semi finals. With the Serb and the Russian eager to do well at this tournament, I predict this match to be a close encounter that could well go to three sets.

Selection: Lay Novak Djokovic 2-0 @ 2.3