World No 70 hands Shanghai surprise to out-of-sorts Federer
Roger Federer has had his trouble with Spanish lefthanders in the past, but he would surely never have expected Albert Ramos-Vinolas to get the better of him. The world No 70, who is no Rafael Nadal, had lost all 15 of his previous encounters with top-10 opponents, winning just two sets in the process, but played the match of his life here yesterday to beat Federer 7-6, 2-6, 6-3 in the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
Federer, returning to competition for the first time since losing to Novak Djokovic in the US Open final a month ago, looked distinctly out of sorts, just as he had at the same stage of this tournament last year, when he saved five match points before beating Leonardo Mayer and going on to win the title.
The 34-year-old Swiss thought he had “played OK considering it was my first match here” but added: “The first round here in Shanghai has always been historically quite difficult, getting used to the conditions and the surface and the balls. The balls play very different than in other places. Last year I got lucky. This year I didn’t.”
Federer insisted that he had not underestimated his opponent, though their only previous meeting had hardly suggested that he would need to be concerned. The 17-times Grand Slam champion beat Ramos 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in the first
round at Wimbledon three years ago.
Ramos, who is the Spanish No 10, said he had not gone into their latest match thinking he could win, but changed his mind once it started. “When I saw that we were very, very similar during the first set, I thought maybe I could play a good match,” he said.
The 27-year-old from Barcelona, who had to win two matches in qualifying last week just to make the main draw, is the lowest-ranked player to beat Federer since Federico Delbonis, the world No 114, surprised the Swiss in Hamburg two summers ago, when he was experimenting with a new racket. Just a fortnight ago Ramos was playing on clay in the Catalonia Championships in Girona. His only appearance in a final on the main tour was in Casablanca in 2012.
Federer’s defeat means that Andy Murray is expected to need to win only one match here – he meets the world No 47, Steve Johnson of the United States, in his opening contest today – in order to stay at No 2 in the world rankings. It also strengthens Murray’s chances of ending the year at No 2 and going into the Australian Open in January knowing that he could not meet Djokovic, the world No 1, before the final.
Djokovic plays his first match here today against Slovakia’s Martin Klizan, while Nadal has a tricky opener against Ivo Karlovic.
Meanwhile Nick Kyrgios has been handed a fine of $1,500 for his use of obscene language during his firstround victory here on Monday. If the Australian incurs further fines of $3,500 or more between now and February he will be banned for 28 days.
Britain’s Johanna Konta resumed her winning ways when she beat Germany’s Annika Beck 6-1, 6-3 in the first round of the Linz Open in Austria. Konta, who now faces Madison Brengle, had lost in the final round of qualifying but was handed a place in the main draw as a “lucky loser” after Anna Karolina Schmiedlova withdrew because of illness.
Heather Watson beat China’s Kai-Lin Zhang 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in her opening match at the Hong Kong Open. The British No 2 now plays Lee Ya-hsuan, of Chinese Taipei.
Laura Robson will not play again this year as she continues her recovery from a longterm wrist injury.