Roger Federer was in fine form as he beat Rafael Nadal to win the Shanghai Masters title.
It was his fifth straight win over Spaniard -- lifting his head-to-head vs. Nadal to a losing 23-15 -- and left me scratching my head saying, "WHY couldn't you ever beat him in your (first) heyday?????"
In majors Nadal leads 9-3.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won a three-set thriller against Daria Gavrilova, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(3) in Hong Kong, the Russia's third title of 2017. (She won no awards for that hairdo, however.)
Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic won her second career title in Linz, defeating Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4, 6-1. It was a six-year gap between the wins.
And in the biggest news from the women's tour, meldonium spokesmodel Maria Sharapova won her first title in more than two years, defeating Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in a hard-hitting affair, 7-5, 7-6(8), to win the Tianjin Open on Sunday. The competition wasn't particularly deep. But it could still prove to be a turning point for the former No. 1 as she looks to become a threat in the majors in 2018.
Both Zverev bothers lost early in Shanghai -- Mischa retired in the first around against Jan-Lennard Struff and Alex lost in three to a slowly resurgent Juan Martin del Potro in the round of 16 -- but still managed to keep the cameras on themselves all week long.
1 comment:
In fairness, Nadal - the greatest clay court player in history - leads Federer 13-2 on clay. So if you take away their claycourt results, Federer leads 13-10 on all other surfaces. I think Federer figured out the secret to playing - and beating - Nadal this year: skip the claycourt season!
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