Novak Djokovic begins his quest for a record fourth Rolex Shanghai Masters championship when he meets familiar foe Jeremy Chardy on Tuesday. Djokovic is 11-0 in matches and 26-0 in sets against Chardy, including a 7-6(5), 6-4 win in the London/Queen’s Club semi-finals on 23 June. The World No. 3 would pass Roger Federer for No. 2 in the ATP Rankings by reaching Sunday’s final, among other scenarios. With each victory this week, Djokovic will also gain ground on Rafael Nadal in the ATP Race to London, which ultimately determines who finishes 2018 as the World No. 1.

View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following match-ups at the Rolex Shanghai Masters and vote for the players you think will win!
Djokovic v Chardy | Shapovalov v Basilashvili | Cilic v Jarry

Joining Djokovic on Center Court is Beijing champion Nikoloz Basilashvili, who for the second time meets #NextGenATP superstar Denis Shapovalov. Basilashvili defeated Shapovalov 6-2, 6-4 in the Budapest second round on 26 April. The Georgian went on to reach the US Open fourth round in between ATP World Tour 500 titles at Hamburg and Beijing. Basilashvili is 15-5 overall and 5-2 against Top 20 opponents since qualifying for Hamburg on 22 July. He is ranked a career-high No. 23 after posting the biggest victory of his career on Sunday over No. 4 Juan Martin del Potro.

Like Basilashvili, Daniil Medvedev is only two days removed from capturing an ATP World Tour 500 title. Medvedev is ranked a career-high No. 22 after defeating two-time champion and local hero Kei Nishikori for the Tokyo title. The 22-year-old Russian is 3-0 in finals this season with all three wins over players competing in their home country. He beat Alex de Minaur for the Sydney title and Steve Johnson for the Winston-Salem title. On Tuesday, Medvedev meets Chinese wild card Ze Zhang, who owns an 0-8 record in main draw matches at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

Yibing Wu, China’s top young male player, won his first ATP World Tour match on Monday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters. The 18-year-old beat countryman and fellow wild card Zhe Li 7-6(5), 6-2 at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event.

“I am very happy to win my first match in ATP World Tour. This is definitely my best performance in the past couple months,” Wu said. “Li Zhe was playing well from the beginning, putting me in very stressful situations. But I still managed to turn this around. So I am very pleased about it.”

The 2017 US Open junior boys’ champion had been 0-5 in ATP World Tour matches, including recent back-to-back losses at the Chengdu Open in Chengdu and the China Open in Beijing. He will next meet eighth seed Kei Nishikori, Asia’s biggest male tennis star, who reached the final of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2018 on Sunday (l. to Medvedev).

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“I am very excited to have a chance to play Nishikori next round,” Wu said. “[Playing] against a top player like Kei is something I always look forward to. As a younger player, I have nothing to lose. Just hoping that I can bring out my best to this match.”

In the beginning of the 2018 season, few, perhaps even Novak Djokovic himself, would have thought the Serbian would be vying to take over the top spot in the ATP Race To London in October.

Djokovic lost to Taro Daniel of Japan and Frenchman Benoit Paire in back-to-back hard-court tournaments in March (Indian Wells, Miami). The Serbian began 2018 with a 6-6 record.

View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following match-ups at the Rolex Shanghai Masters and vote for the players you think will win!
Djokovic v Chardy | Shapovalov v Basilashvili | Cilic v Jarry

Yet if Djokovic wins his fourth Rolex Shanghai Masters title this week, he will be within 35 points of claiming the top spot in the Race from Spain’s Rafael Nadal, who’s still nursing a knee injury that forced him to withdraw from his US Open semi-final.

“I am really glad that I put myself in a position to compete for No. 1 of the world. And maybe four, five months ago, that was looking a little bit far from reach, but with the recent results, I put myself in a pretty decent position to fight for No. 1, year-end No. 1, which of course is always one of the ultimate goals that you have as a professional tennis player,” Djokovic said.

The Serbian has won 13 consecutive matches, dating back to his Western & Southern Open title in Cincinnati, where he achieved his Career Golden Masters, and at the US Open, where he won his 14^th Grand Slam, tying Pete Sampras for third place on the all-time list.

He currently has 6,445 points in the Race, and with another 1,000 from winning Shanghai, Djokovic could have 7,445, just 35 from Nadal’s 7,4580. Djokovic faces Jeremy Chardy on Tuesday. The Serbian leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 11-0.

See Who’s Chasing Rafa, Novak In The ATP Race To London

“He’s a great guy. I get along very well with him,” Djokovic said. “I think what I did well in the past in our matchups, I managed to neutralise his first serve, and I think also take advantage of his second serve and try to be consistent on my service games, move him around the court, because he’s not the best mover forward, backwards, so I try to expose his weaknesses, in a way, look for the backhand, but obviously his forehand is lethal if he gets the good rhythm on it.

“So I will try to approach things and execute hopefully tactically well.”

Borna Coric withstood the power of Swiss wild card Stan Wawrinka, who continues to grow in confidence on his comeback from knee surgery, for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 first-round victory in just under two hours on Monday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

Coric, the No. 13 seed from Croatia, saved two break points at 3-3 in the second set and won three of the first four games in the decider to complete his 32nd match win of the season, which includes the Gerry Weber Open in Halle (d. Federer) — his second ATP World Tour crown. It was Coric’s first victory in his fourth meeting against former World No. 3 Wawrinka.

The 21-year-old will next challenge American qualifier Bradley Klahn, who has qualified for his third straight ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament and held his nerve to beat Australian Nick Kyrgios.

World No. 93 Klahn recorded just his fourth tour-level win of the year over Kyrgios 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in 78 minutes, winning five straight games from 4-4 in the second set to 3-0 in the decider. Klahn won 82 per cent of his first-service points and struck 18 aces, with Kyrgios hitting 14 aces and five double faults.

Elsewhere, in one of the final matches of the day, Andreas Seppi defeated Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-4 in 83 minutes. He awaits the winner of 11th-seeded Briton Kyle Edmund and Filip Krajinovic of Serbia. In an all-Chinese matchup, Yibing Wu beat Zhe Li 7-6(5), 6-2.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, who last week qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals in November, lived to fight another day on Monday when the 10th-seeded #NextGenATP star worked his way past France’s Gael Monfils at the Rolex Shanghai Masters. The 20-year-old Greek triumphed 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and 22 minutes for a second-round meeting against Russia’s Karen Khachanov.

Tsitsipas saved three set points on serve at 5-6 in the first set, prior to winning the first six points of the tie-break, and later broke Monfils in the eighth game of the decider in their first FedEx ATP Head2Head clash. Former World No. 6 Monfils responded immediately to get back to 4-5, but then dropped to 15/40 and served his fifth double fault of the match to hand Tsitsipas his 34th victory of the season (34-24).

Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, the 2016 finalist (l. to Murray), knocked out #NextGenATP Andrey Rublev of Russia 6-3, 6-4 to improve to a 29-17 record on the season, which includes the ASB Classic (d. Del Potro) and the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (d. Pouille). Bautista Agut will next face American qualifier Mackenzie McDonald, a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victor over Canadian No. 14 seed Milos Raonic. Rublev is currently in seventh position in the ATP Race To Milan for a spot at the Next Gen ATP Finals in November. 

Former World No. 11 Sam Querrey struck 14 aces and lost five of his first-service points (34/39) for a 66-minute victory over ninth-seeded Argentine Diego Schwartzman, who had won their past two matches. Querrey now faces fellow American Taylor Fritz, who was also impressive on serve – with 14 aces and 40 of 48 first-service points won – in a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over the experienced Dutchman Robin Haase in 81 minutes. Fritz, in sixth position in the #NextGenATP battle for a Milan spot, reached the BNP Paribas Open fourth round (l. to Coric) in March.

Elsewhere, Australia’s Matthew Ebden defeated fifth-placed #NextGenATP Frances Tiafoe 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 50 minutes and will now challenge sixth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem, who is a contender for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals in November.