Roger Federer returns to the ATP World Tour this week at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. But before play gets underway in the ATP Masters 1000 event, he entertained fans in a more light-hearted way on Saturday.

Federer got into a dance-off with none other than Mickey Mouse himself on centre court at QiZhong Stadium, showing that he can do more dancing than simply running around a backhand to hit a forehand.

The Swiss will resume his pursuit of a record-tying sixth year-end Emirates ATP Rankings No. 1 spot when he plays the winner of Rakuten Japan Open semi-finalist Diego Schwartzman and a qualifier in the second round. 

A big week in Shanghai will go a long way for the Swiss. But Federer faces a tough path in his quest to track down Rafael Nadal in the Emirates ATP Race To London, currently trailing by 2,160 points entering Sunday. Critical points are up for grabs at the penultimate ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the year.

The second seed finds himself in the same half of the draw as Alexander Zverev, who became the third player to punch his ticket to the Nitto ATP Finals with a quarter-final run at the China Open. Should they meet in the Shanghai semis, it would be a rematch of the Coupe Rogers final in Montreal, where Zverev clinched his second Masters 1000 crown of the season.

A potential quarter-final clash against 2016 Shanghai runner-up Roberto Bautista Agut looms, while David Goffin, who carries an eight-match win streak into Sunday’s Tokyo final, is also in Federer’s quarter of the draw.

Zverev, meanwhile, will potentially need to fight past 2013 finalist Juan Martin del Potro and fifth seed Dominic Thiem to set a meeting with Federer in the last four. Thiem is fourth in the Emirates ATP Race To London, with 3,715 points.

In the other half of the draw, top seed Rafael Nadal leads the pack. His best result in Shanghai was a runner-up finish to Nikolay Davydenko in 2009. Pablo Cuevas or #NextGenATP Jared Donaldson awaits the Spaniard in his opener, with a potential rematch against sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov in the cards in the quarter-finals. Nadal defeated Dimitrov in Saturday’s Beijing semis.

Nadal owns a record-tying 30 titles (w/Djokovic) at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 level and will look to add to victories in Monte-Carlo and Madrid this year. His last hard-court Masters 1000 triumph came in Cincinnati in 2013.

If he is to add another title to his list of accolades, Nadal will have to get through a difficult half of the draw, with the second quarter full of players attempting to strengthen their bids in the Emirates ATP Race To London.

Marin Cilic is the highest seed in the section at No. 4, but seventh-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta, US Open finalist Kevin Anderson and Nick Kyrgios, who is playing Nadal in Sunday’s Beijing final, are all lurking.

Carreno Busta, who is currently eighth in the Race, Anderson (No.12) and Kyrgios (No. 15) are all seeking their first London berths.

Perhaps the most intriguing match of the opening round pits Anderson against Adrian Mannarino, who defeated Cilic Saturday to advance to the Tokyo final. Other matches to keep an eye on are Kyrgios against American Steve Johnson and  Fabio Fognino against Fernando Verdasco.

David Goffin reached his second successive final at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017 on Saturday, a result which moved the Belgian into the final automatic qualification spot for next month’s Nitto ATP Finals.

Goffin moved up one spot past American Sam Querrey (2,435) to No. 10 in the Emirates ATP Race To London — with 2,540 points — for a spot at the season finale, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November. Goffin started the week at No. 13 in the year-to-date standings.

Fourth seed Goffin improved to 48-18 on the season with a 7-6(3), 7-6(6) victory over fellow baseliner, eighth-seeded Argentine Diego Schwartzman, in two hours and three minutes for a place in his fourth ATP World Tour final of the year. Goffin is on an eight-match winning streak, which includes his third trophy last week at the Shenzhen Open (d. Dolgopolov).

He will face top-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic, also vying for a berth in the English capital at No. 6 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, or Adrian Mannarino of France in the Tokyo final on Sunday. Last year, Goffin lost to Australia’s Nick Kyrgios in the championship match.

At the end of a high-quality first set won by Goffin, dominated by tactical guile and fine groundstroke winners, Schwartzman was left to rue snatching at a forehand destined for down the line and into space at 4-4, with his opponent serving at 0/30. Ultimately, three straight forehand errors by Schwartzman in the tie-break handed Goffin the set.

Goffin broke Schwartzman’s serve in the fifth game of the second set, then recovered from 15/40 in the next game to seize control of the pair’s fourth FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Schwartzman, a 5’6” in height and the possessor of a blistering forehand, continued to battle and was rewarded — in a run of three straight games — with a Goffin forehand error when the Belgian served for the match at 5-4, 15/40.

Goffin took a 4/2 advantage in the tie-break, but soon found himself at 4/5. He dug deep to respond and lead 6/5, but Schwartzman saved the match point and subsequently double-faulted. The match ended when Schwartzman hit a backhand long of the baseline. Goffin has an 8-1 match record at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament.

Schwartzman, 25, was appearing in his second ATP World Tour semi-final of the year. He reached the same stage at Istanbul in May (l. to Cilic) and has a 32-24 match record in 2017.

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If there is one thing you can be certain of Saturday, it is that the China Open semi-finals will not disappoint.

For the first time in the tournament’s history (since 2004), the top three seeds are in the semi-finals in Beijing. It just so happens that those three seeds are three of the top five players in the Emirates ATP Race To London, with World No. 1 Rafael Nadal leading the way. There is no shortage of talent behind him either, with World No. 4 Alexander Zverev, who officially qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals Friday, World No. 8 Grigor Dimitrov and three-time ATP World Tour titlist Nick Kyrgios completing the stunningly talented quartet.

Nadal is the only former champion of the group, having captured the glory in 2005. And while Dimitrov was a finalist last year, Kyrgios and Zverev are appearing in the semi-finals for the first time.

In the first semi-final on National Tennis Stadium, Nadal brings an 8-1 head-to-head record into a clash against Dimitrov, with their last meeting resulting in a five-set thriller at this year’s Australian Open, which the Spaniard won. Dimitrov’s lone win came in the Beijing quarter-finals last year.

Nadal hasn’t lost in any of his eight semi-finals this season and is appearing in his fifth Beijing semi-final (3-1). The 31-year-old Spaniard comes in with a tour-leading 59 wins in 2017 (59-9) and he’s trying to win 60 matches for the ninth time in his career. Nadal is attempting to reach his 110th singles final and win his 75th title.

Dimitrov, who lost to Andy Murray in last year’s final, is 3-2 in semi-final matches this season. He’s trying to capture a fourth ATP World Tour title in 2017, which would put him one behind the tour lead at five (Nadal, Zverev, Roger Federer). The 26-year-old Bulgarian is seeking his eighth title. And if he is to make the final to earn the opportunity to do so, he will have to beat a World No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings for the second time (1-7).

In the next semi-final, two of the bright young stars on the ATP World Tour, 22-year-old Kyrgios and 20-year-old Zverev square off for the fourth time this season. The Aussie has won two of the three meetings, but the German won their last encounter in August at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal.

Zverev became the third player to clinch a spot in the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals in London by virtue of his quarter-final victory over Andrey Rublev. Like Nadal, he has an opportunity to become the tour’s solo leader with six titles should he go all the way in Beijing.

A berth in the final will not come easily against Kyrgios, who has only been broken once in 25 service games this week while also leading the tournament in return games won at a 50 per cent clip (12 of 24). Kyrgios is attempting to claim his first title since last year’s Rakuten Japan Open (d. Goffin).

In doubles play, top-seeded Henri Kontinen and John Peers will face Paolo Lorenzi and Mischa Zverev for the right to play Americans John Isner and Jack Sock in Sunday’s final.

Top-seeded Marin Cilic leads a crop of three seeds into the semi-finals of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships on Saturday, with Frenchman Adrian Mannarino attempting to spoil the party. At the end of the weekend, one member of the semi-final quartet will earn their first Rakuten Japan Open title in Tokyo.

Cilic, Mannarino and No. 8-seeded Diego Schwartzman have shown good form by now dropping a set yet this week. But with an ATP World Tour final on the line, anything can happen.

In the opening match on Colosseum, 2016 finalist David Goffin, the No. 4 seed, brings a 2-1 head-to-head record on hard courts against Schwartzman, who is the first Argentine to reach the Tokyo semi-finals since Juan Martin del Potro won the title in 2013 (d. Raonic). The 26-year-old Belgian comes in on a seven-match winning streak after earning his third career ATP World Tour title in Shenzhen last Sunday.

Schwartzman is making his second semi-final appearance of the season, and his first since Istanbul in May. The Argentinian is trying to advance to his third career ATP World Tour final (1-1), having won his maiden title in Istanbul last year.

The match has plenty of importance for the Emirates ATP Race To London, in which Goffin has moved to No. 11, just 15 points behind Sam Querrey, who holds the final spot due to the seasons of Stan Wawrinka (No. 7) and Novak Djokovic (No. 9) ending prematurely due to injury. 

In the next match on, Cilic looks for his second win against Mannarino, who is appearing in his second semi-final of the season.

Cilic, who won the pair’s only previous meeting in three sets, is making his second straight semi-final appearance in Tokyo. It is the Croat’s first semi-final since July, when he reached the Wimbledon final (l. to Federer). Cilic is trying to reach his 31st career final as he pursues his 18th ATP World Tour title, which would make him the first player from Croatia to earn the trophy.

Mannarino is trying reach his second ATP World Tour final of the season (Antalya in July), which would provide him an opportunity to win his first title.

In the lone doubles semi-final, the Japanese wild card pairing of Ben Mclachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama, the first-time semi-finalists who upset US Open champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, take on the first-time duo of Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Julio Peralta of Chile. No. 2 seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares await the winner in Sunday’s championship match.