ATP Shanghai Masters 2024

[Rajiv]

Meanwhile Sumit plays tommorow at 12.30 noon local time. And no excuses and nothing less than a win would do.

Cause his opponent is still struggling with injuries as evident from his last 2 matches that he played , and in both of them he had to retire, so he doesn't seem to have fully recovered, , plus the Challenger he won was a low level 50 where the highest opponent he faced during the whole tournament was a 330 ranked , much lower than Sumit's standards.

So a good chance for Sumit to score a rare HC win against a player who has retired in his recent matches and has just parachuted by virtue of a WC for this event.

[Sanjay]

Sumit has lost his last 6 matches. Last win was 22nd July. He needs to break this bad streak.

[jayakris]

Ramkumar is a confidence player, who gains oxygen from large crowds -- whether they are supporting him or not.

Crowds do seem to help him. But there is also another possible explanation I have for this. They are using electronic line calls (ELC) at Shanghai. RamK was not spending mental energy or losing mental focus, bothering about line calls and arguing.

Just what I have been asking, for ages. Focus on the shots and not the correctness of line calls. Stop even thinking about whether the umps and line judges are all trying to make him lose matches. Drop negative thoughts. It was way too often that I was seeing RamK muttering to himself or arguing, well after the point was over and even when the next point was underway, as he was waiting to receive serve or had done his serve (a fault quite often!)... There has been none of that at Shanghai.

I did not see the Q2 as it was the middle of the night for me, but saw the Q1, and that was the most focused RamK that I have seen in a while. He challenged some ELC calls for video review, just like his opponent, but there was no loss of focus, no muttering to himself, or any lingering negative energy in his mind about everybody trying to make calls against him and all that. It was so refreshing to see the opponent behaving like an ass, yelling and screaming, and RamK calmly playing his tennis like a professional!

Just a possibility. He is simply playing much better than he has been playing for the last several months. Mentally focused. I never felt that he ever lost his game. He was not using his game to win matches.

[jayakris]

Meanwhile Sumit plays tomorrow at 12.30 noon local time. And no excuses and nothing less than a win would do.

Yeah, he needs to win this match. He just has to.

[PKBasu]

It would be terrific to have two Indians in the second round of a Masters singles, even if they play their R1 matches on consecutive days (rather than the same day). I think it's great news that Ramkumar's R1 match is on Thursday, giving him an extra day of rest after his exertions on consecutive days in the Qualifiers.

[arjun2761]

Looks like Shanghai is a fast court with lower bounce. Will be tough for Sumit to do well here but good luck to him.

Hopefully, Ramk can pull off another win here as the courts here should help his game as shown his two excellent wins in the qualies.

[arjun2761]

^^^^ According to a random internet source ( ), the hard court speeds on the ATP tour (GS/Masters) is as follows. Shanghai is the fastest of them all.

Tournament Court Pace Index
Australian Open 38
Indian Wells 27.9
Miami 30.4
Canada Open 35.2
Cincinnati 40.2
US Open 35.4
Shanghai 42.9
Paris 39.1
ATP Finals 40.3

[sameerph]

Sumit lost the first set 3-6 against Yibing Wu.

Started with a break of serve but than lost 6 of the next 8 games.

[Rajiv]

Damm... Sumit loses the S1 @3.
Looks tentative and not moving freely at all looks as if he is the one who is playing after 2 retirements in his last 2 matches rather than his opponent who has.

Hope he can make a comeback as when the Chinese was serving for the set raised his game putting the Chinese under pressure taking him to Duece.

[Atithee]

Looks like it’s all over 3-6, 3-6. It’s only best of three here, right?

[ankit1407]

Yes best of three..

Overall never looked like threatening Wu.. pretty poor performance overall …

[Omkara]

Anyways not his fav surface. Way more faster than his comfort. But worth the prize money.

Even on clay he rarely wins while making a comeback.

[Sanjay]

How disappointing. 7 losses in a row. He should probably play a few challengers and get his confidence back.

[arjun2761]

Right now he is just collecting pay checks. At some point, he will need to get back on clay (or the slower hard courts) to collect points to make sure that he can make the grand slam main draws because that is where the bigger money is.

[PKBasu]

[R1] Sumit Nagal (IND, 82; CH 68) l. WC-Wu Yibing (CHN, 561; CH 54) 36 36

Sumit cannot expect to get an easier match than this in a Masters. Yet he lost badly. The fast court of course doesn't suit his game, but he needs to find a way to win this type of match.
He is indeed just turning up to maximise his earnings at the moment. He hasn't won a match on hard courts -- losing 7 in a row. His last win was on clay at the Austrian Open in Kitzbuhel. He was winning at least a round in most clay ATP tournaments, and made two Challenger finals on clay (winning one title) just before Wimbledon. The only strategy for him has to be to get back onto the clay courts soon to start rebuilding the points.