Shanghai Rolex Masters - Hard-court Murray Reign

By Joe, bettingexpert.com | Edited 11:28 11.10.2011

Murray wins

Good memories of Shanghai for the British Number One, Andy Murray as he prepares for the yet another ATP Master 1000 trophy. He will have a bit of a fight from both Rafael Nadal, JW Tsonga and Mardy Fish. The hardcourts are ready to go and a prize money worth sweating over.

Shanghai Rolex Masters 2011

Two more ATP 1000 Masters to go and the season will end with a high in London where the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals are held. Before that happens the Shanghai Rolex Masters 2011 needs to be contested during the week commencing from 9^th of October to the final day on 16^th of October. The total prize of USD$3,240,000 is on the offer and 54 top tennis male players will be fight for it. Andy Murray will return to defend his title that he won in 2010.

Shanghai was voted one of the best tournaments in the ATP tournament calendar year and so it was awarded the ATP World Tour Masters. With such a big event in Shanghai, Rolex became the main sponsor and something of good prize additions when you win. Defending champion, Andy Murray returns to Shanghai with much high hopes as his recent performances show that his end of season form is on a high. He’s taken the Thailand Open and reaching the final in China Open facing Rafael Nadal. Both Murray and Nadal have qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals so this will be more of a prestigious event of winning ATP 1000 Masters trophies, which hasn’t being plenty. The Spaniard will aim to win his 20^th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament and as a finalist back in 2009, he will have the know how to please the home crowd of being the favorite.

Absentees

Both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are not represented in Shanghai. For the world number one, Djokovic suffered a rupture of a back muscle which has been persistant so rehabilition is already on course in hope to return for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. Federer has pulled out due to exhaustion from the overwhelming schedule this season and Swedish Robin Soderling is not clear when he will return.

When players like Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are not available to contest in Shanghai, other players like Marian Clic, JW Tsonga, Berdych, David Ferrer and Mardy Fish spring into mind. Currently the 2^nd tier to the top four players in the world, they are certainly within a chance to prove their worth. American Andy Roddick is an outsider while better chances are on Mardy Fish, debuting in Shanghai, as both of them are hard court specialist. Talking about specialists, you can’t doubt Frenchmen Tsonga and Gilies Simon will bring some element of surprises while new boys Nicolas Almagro and Janko Tipsarevic are doing very well for starters.

Verdict:

Two favorites to make the finals, Nadal or Murray, but our money is on Murray for the time being. The reason might be due to the courts, he loves the hard court surface and that is why he’s done well in the latter of the ATP season. If there was an outside chance of anyone to break these two then it would be a hunch that Tsonga can do it. The Frenchmen is one of the few players that has been able to beat Nadal this season so have to go with this dark horse in Shanghai.

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Few surprises in the first round Fish, Cilic, Tipsarevic, Ljubicic & Nalbandian all gone crashing out. Really thought Fish would do well so i'm shocked by that. Me thinks it could be a Nadal vs Murray final maybe berdych outside chance.