Sideline Story

Has Shanghai Masters marked the beginning of China's men’s tennis rise?

The ATP Shanghai Masters features a record number of players from the Chinese mainland in the main draw. What does it say about China’s tennis progress on the men's side? Also in this episode, we list our choices of the best performers in Shanghai and discuss Novak Djokovic’s form as he returned to the Shanghai event after a five-year absence.

Broadcast on:: 11 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

(upbeat music) Hello and welcome to Sideline's story, your destination for sports news and analysis and discussions on Yangguang. Today we are going to take a look at the tennis Shanghai Masters, which players are looking good at the event, how did the Chinese athletes perform on home soil to touch on these topics and join here with my co-hosts Tian Yu and Brenda Yates via video. Shanghai Masters, one of the nine ATP-1000 tournaments on the tour and the only master level event in Asia. This year's Shanghai Masters features eight of the top 10 players in the world. Besides seeded athletes like Janik Sinha, Carlos Ekeros, Daniel Medvedev, Alexander Zevirev, no back Jockovic, the most successful player at the event. Yeah, I'll return to Shanghai after five-year absence. So the main draw looks no different than the Grand Slam event. Tian Yu, we've seen some action so far at the Shanghai Masters. I suppose we don't see many big surprises, big upsets over the years, the top players have been very consistent. So from your side of things, which player has stood out for you at the Shanghai Masters so far this year? Well, since I've been mostly following the games of Chinese players on the tournament and I must say that I'm quite impressed by the player who just eliminated two Chinese players in a row. Carlos Ekeros. Right. Yeah, and after defeating Sinha and winning the China Open, I think he has been in red heart forms. And I think we've been talking about how what can separate top class players from who can win Grand Slam titles consistently from the rest of the other players. In terms of techniques or tactics during the game, I think there's little room for improvement for these kinds of players. But mine said it's something that can really determine the outcome of the games between top tier players, right? So I think Ekeros has already got the mentality to remain clear-headed in every kind of situation 'cause he proved it in that epic final between him and Sinha on the China Open final. When he got overturned by Sinha in the first set, he didn't panic at all, but instead he gathered himself quickly to break Sinha and win the second set. And in that grueling deciding set, he was once three or no down in the tie-break game, but he sustained all the pressure and overturned the game magically by winning seven points in a row. I think that was the best proof of how far he has come in his mentality. And he has really continued his hot forms in the Shanghai Masters. And in the game against We Being, Wu was once very close in winning the first set, but Ekeros quickly adapted himself really well and showed his dominance. So yeah, I would say Ekeros has been the most impressive player for me so far at the Shanghai Masters. - Technically wise, we talked about so much about Ekeros, how he's a very good player in terms of the drop shot, the baseline shot, the power. Yeah, the most diverse style player on the tour so far, maybe. But we seldom talk about the mental fortitude he has gained over the years. I think he learned a lot from the matches against Novak Jokovic, maybe. But at such a young age, he has grown so much in terms of his mentality into the games, into the matches. So yeah, he's been very impressive, especially in the Asian swing at the China Open and now the Shanghai Masters. Brandon, which player caught your attention so far in Shanghai? - Yeah, look, I think Ekeros's success has kind of been China's undoing at this competition, unfortunately, for also as Chinese fans, of the players that are taking part in Shanghai. But that being said, he's been in red out form. And I think for me, Cinna, Ekeros are definitely the standards throughout this entire season. And to see the two top performing athletes in the sport, playing at the highest level in China has been really exciting to see. I mean, we've also seen some, you know, like you mentioned, I think it was the top eight out of the top 10 are performing in China. I think we've seen some good performances from other big names like Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Holger, Roon, et cetera. But one surprising performer for me has been the veteran, Gail Monfis. He's always been a talented, exciting tennis player to watch for me over the course of his career. I think he's very expressive and he's quite an interesting character to watch on the court. He's known for some of his trick shots and he seems to have a good personality and a seemingly well liked by a lot of tennis fans. And, you know, he is a veteran of the sport and, you know, he's obviously at the latter stage of his career. At the Shanghai Masters, he's shown some pretty impressive performances and he's seemingly shown a lot of stamina because I think in the round of '64 and the round of '32, he managed to get through three sets. So I think he's been really great to watch at the Shanghai Masters and that's been a bit of a surprise results and a surprise performer. But other than that, I think the likes of Senna and Alperes have definitely been the two men to watch, not just in China this year, at the China Open and the Shanghai Masters. But just throughout the entire 2024 season and I think those are going to be the two names that are going to, you know, take the mantle and take the sport forward as we look into the future. - Yeah, interestingly, Gail Monfis is also the one I want to mention here in this topic. I mean, of course, the top players at once are always trying at big tournaments like the Shanghai Masters, but events like this also belong into those names. We sell them, you know, mentioning everyday chat. And this year, I think Gail Monfis at age of 38, still active and ATP tour really performed well. He brought some brilliant performances in Shanghai. As Brandon mentioned, he knocked out 22nd seats, Spashian buys first and then 16th seat, he's a fellow country man, Uggo Amberg, to reach the last 16, that was brilliant. I have been sort of half a fan of Gail Monfis. I really like the way he plays. The tennis is so different from the normal tennis we've seen, you know, which is serious and rigid. The way he plays is like, he really casually hits the ball and quotes, sometimes you don't see him lower his body to return the ball, which other players always do. He seemed like he's not always prepared, but he always brought out some studying shots, full of imagination, yeah. He may not be the best player on the tour, but he always offers some special moments, highlighting moments like Xu Xin in table tennis. So, yeah, to watch such a player who used to be in the same era with the Big Three, Big Four, still on the tour and performing well, is quite unique. But talking about something unique to see, there were a record number of players from Chinese mainland at the Shanghai Masters, five of them. Zhang Zhejiang, Zhang Zhejiang Ui being Boingchokte and Zhou Yi. Although all of them are out, it's still a significant milestone they have achieved at the event for Team China. Can you, what do you make of their performance? Well, first of all, I think is a little bit disappointing that we didn't get to see any Chinese player advancing past the third round. Zhang Zhejiang and Boingchokte's first round exits are quite frustrating, but I think he's understandable 'cause Zhang Zhejiang has been really struggling with his form after he quipped the US Open due to injury. And after his recovery, he just went on to take part in the Hangzhou Open, the China Open and the Shanghai Masters. It's physically demanding for a player who just recovered from-- Yeah, there's no break. Yeah, from an injury. Yeah, to have such a packed game schedule. And it's also the same for Poingchokte who had advanced to the semifinals of both the Hangzhou Open and the China Open with little time to rest. Yeah. But despite their exits, I think there are still quite some surprises for us from the Chinese players in this tournament. Wei Bing's performance in the game is definitely a confidence booster for all of us. When facing one of the greatest player on Earth in the world, he fought really hard and he was really close to getting the first set. He's serving and his movement were pretty amazing. And I think he can still have better results in the future as long as he can stay healthy 'cause he has been suffering so many injuries this season. Yeah. And also another surprise comes from Zhang Zhejiang. And even though he was also knocked out by Aokras in the second round, he showed his potential in the game. He's not the kind of players who can always win the game by power or who's incredibly powerful like Aokras, but he can play really flexibly with a lot of skills. And like we said in previous episodes, I think he represents the future of Chinese tennis. Right. Of course, the Shanghai Masters, he's a very high level event. So to have five men and players at the tournament, he's still a big breakthrough, yeah. Personally, I think it's still early days for Chinese men's tennis, but in the past month, we've seen some special moments. Zhang Zhejiang winning his first ATP tour event. Zhang Zhejiang broke into the final in Hangzhou, and the Boingchukta reached the semifinals and the China Open, who he'd been, as you mentioned, returned to the court after a long recovery from multiple injuries and went through to the third round at the Shanghai Masters. It's a huge breakthrough for them already. I would say the Chinese men's tennis is currently at the stage. The Chinese women's tennis went through a couple of years back. At that time, we had a bunch of really great female players on the tour until Zhang Zhejiang really stood out from them and broke into the top 10 interval rankings. Now we have a quite large men's tennis contingent on the tour. So maybe in years, we might see one of them rise from the pool to break into top 20, top 10 intervals. The things are looking very positive for them, and I think this large-scale participation in the Shanghai Masters is part of it. Brandon, what do you think? Yeah, so I think the participation of five men's players at the Shanghai Masters is an incredible moment and an incredible achievement for Chinese tennis in 2024. And it's been absolutely fantastic to watch. And I think it's just another signal that the progress of tennis on the men's side for China is definitely improving. And that's really, really fantastic to see. Obviously, I think Zhang Zhejiang's early exit from the Shanghai Masters was a little bit disappointing, but there were a lot of mitigating factors around that. Like you guys have already mentioned, he has been battling injuries and a packed schedule and hasn't really had time to bounce back from some of those injuries. So it has been a very difficult season for him, and hopefully we will see him return to his absolute best in the 2025 season. And then, of course, arguably the most informed player in men's tennis in the world at the moment, Carlos Alcaras was, unfortunately, the undoing of some of China's best performing men's players at the Shanghai Masters this year. I think we saw an absolutely fantastic performance from Wu Yubing against Carlos Alcaras. In that first set, it looked like really anything could happen, and it really went down to the Y, and then Carlos Alcaras ended up taking the first and second set against Wu Yubing, but he can definitely hold his head up high for a really fantastic performance for China on home turf. And that was really great to see. And then, of course, Zhang Zhejiang also really put up a good performance against Carlos Alcaras. It was pretty straightforward in terms of the victory for Alcaras, but to see Zhang perform at the highest level against this incredible player and showing no lack of confidence and having a couple of moments where he really showed his potential, that was really also fantastic to see. So I think all in all, having the five Chinese players performing was really great to see. And I think, in particular, the performances of Wu Yubing and Zhang Zhejiang against Carlos Alcaras, and before they came up against Carlos Alcaras, I think they both performed incredibly well, and that was really fantastic to see, you know, as a fan and as an admirer of the Chinese athletes that were all performing at the Zhejiang High Masters. - I mean, yeah, Zhang Zhejiang went through a really tough season this year, but I think what his good at is under Red Clay Court, what he did at the French Open and the Madrid Open, was fantastic. Maybe hard courts is a little bit shaky for him. Hopefully, next year, when he's turning to the Clay Court season, who you see better performance from him, but for players like Wu Yubing, Zhang Zhejiang, I think they are doing their best in the Asian swing, not only in the Zhang High Masters, but the China Open and the previous tournaments in Chengdu and Hanjo, but as I said, Novak Djokovic played his first the Shanghai Masters in five years. Five years ago, he was absolutely, well, number one, the best-demand player on the tour, but now he's kind of overshadowed by up-and-coming generation players like Janik Sinha and Carlos Alcaras. However, it's also a historic year for Djokovic after he won the Paris Olympic gold medal. So, it's a dream come true, yeah. But since that, it seems like his game intensity got loosened all of a sudden, and the US Open, he got knocked out early in the third round, and his first match in Shanghai wasn't easy as well. He had to go through two tie bricks to win that match. Brandon, from your side of things, do you think Djokovic has had a big slump since the Paris Olympics? And if yes, can he recover from that? - I think you can definitely argue that Novak Djokovic has had a slump since his incredible Paris 2024 Olympics victory against Carlos Alcaras. I think we definitely saw him struggle at the US Open, where I think he had to, you know, play multiple sets in the first and second round, and then ultimately was undone in the third round, which was a huge disappointment for Djokovic, because I believe he was ranked second at that tournament. I definitely think we saw signs of fatigue and a very long season for Djokovic, and maybe just a couple of signs that he is reaching the tail end of his career. But that being said, at the Shanghai Masters, he's looked really impressive. He seems to be in some of the best form that he's been in this year. So I think it's been a bit of an up and down return to action for Novak Djokovic since his incredible Paris Olympics gold medal run. So yeah, look, I think the slump was expected. I think considering his age and the packed season that he's had and the fatigue that he's had to deal with and the injuries that he's had to bounce back from, I think that he gave us absolute all at the Paris Olympics. And, you know, I think it's remarkable that he's even been able to continue to play throughout the 2024 season. So I think there definitely has been a slump since that Olympic gold medal victory. But that being said, I think it has been expected and it hasn't been that disappointing. Besides the US Open performance, which I think was a little bit more disappointing than people were expecting, I think overall it's Djokovic has handled the 2024 season, the packed 2024 season incredibly well. And I think going into the future, maybe the remaining three, four, five years of his career, he really has to manage his time very effectively and efficiently and carefully. And we can then see him elongate the remainder of his career as best as he possibly can. - Okay, I guess Djokovic's future is in a question mark. People already speculate that Djokovic cannot return to Shanghai next year. But what kind of shape is Djokovic in at the moment from your side of things, can you? - Well, honestly, I don't think he is experiencing a slump in his form, right? 'Cause I think he has invested too much of himself in the pursuit of the Olympic gold medal so that there is not much in the tank for him to play the rest of the games in the season, which has basically led him to his early exit in the US Open, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he had a bad form. It's just that his age and energy just can't allow him to play under such high pressure consistently. And also, once he gets enough rest and time for his body to recover, if he invisible Djokovic, it makes a comeback real quick. 'Cause in his first game of the Shanghai Masters, we can see that he was warming up slowly to adapt his body to the competition mode. And he seemed to be struggling a little bit in the game, but after he got used to the intensity of the tournament, he was quickly regaining himself, his tempo in the next game, and it only took him about an hour to wing that match. So, yeah, I think it's pretty incredible that Djokovic can keep such a high level of competitiveness at the age of 37. And we can never run it underrestimate his potential, even as he was approaching the tail end of his career. And I think it's still very thrilling to see how much further this legend can go in his tennis career. - Yeah, it's very common to see top players struggle a bit in the first match of any tournament, including the Grand Slams. But Djokovic's struggling was kind of obvious to these years at the Shanghai Masters. We know Janik Sinha and Carlos Ekera split the Grand Slam titles this year. For Djokovic, no Grand Slam at all in one year is kind of rare to see, especially considering that in 2023, he won three of the four Grand Slams on offer. So, Grand Slam wise, it's the worst year for Djokovic in eight years. And it seems like Janik Sinha and Carlos Ekera is opening a new era that belongs to them. Brendan, do you think Djokovic can win another Grand Slam title in the future at the age of 37? - So like I mentioned earlier, it definitely does look like Carlos Alperas and Janik Sinha are definitely the present and the future of men's tennis. They definitely seem to be the two most exciting and consistent performance on the men's side. And we've seen that in 2024 as they've shared all of the Grand Slam victories. And even at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Carlos Ekera is narrowly lost to Novak Djokovic in that final, but still put on a really fantastic performance in that final. So, I think going into the remainder of the season where there isn't much left and going into 2025, the names that everybody will be watching will definitely be Janik Sinha and Carlos Ekera as on the men's side. And I think again, we will see that in 2025 where those two players will be battling for all of the Grand Slams and all of the other, you know, events that take place in the 2025 season. When it comes to Novak Djokovic, I think a lot of the potential success or failures that he will have to endure in 2025 and beyond will ultimately be up to him and his team. Look, I think in 2024, like I also mentioned earlier, he dealt with a very packed season relatively well. And, you know, the fact that he was able to get his first Olympic gold medal was a huge achievement for him. And we just saw in his reaction in that final, how much that meant to him. And I think that possibly solidified his name as, you know, ultimately the greatest of all time on the men's side in tennis. But going into the remainder of his career, I think Djokovic and his team really need to manage his time carefully. And I think they need to potentially identify which Grand Slams he has the best chance of being competitive at. So I think that if he doesn't play too much tennis, if he's able to manage fatigue, if he's able to manage his injuries and he's able to identify which Grand Slams he, you know, realistically has a chance of getting through to the quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals. I think if that is all done effectively, I think he can really have a fantastic 2025 season and has a very good chance of claiming at least one more Grand Slam title. And I think some of it will come down to a bit of luck as well. Maybe some of his competitors lack a bit of form, or I hope this doesn't happen, but maybe some of his top competitors pick up an injury or something like that. So luck may also be, may play a factor in Djokovic's 2025 season Yeah, I think Djokovic is kind of under the form of he needs to cope with fatigue, of course, on the tour, so many tournaments and the events to deal with. First of all, I think his age and his tiring body is kind of failing him. And some moments, especially like this year at Wimbledon in the final against Alcaras. I don't think his body was 100% ready. But Tien, you do think another Grand Slam is possible for him? Well, I think the odds are definitely against Djokovic. As we can see, yeah, center and Alcaras are pretty much in their prime, and I think they're definitely going to keep dominating the tennis courts for at least five years, I would say. But still, as I said, I think no one should really underestimate Djokovic's potential, and anything is possible for him. And I would not be surprised to see him winning another Grand Slam title next year. Yeah, we've witnessed some ups and downs in Djokovic's career. But he could always come back with some miracles in his career. Maybe this time, he can also come back, let's see, if Djokovic can win his 25th Grand Slam title, and even more in the future in the rest of his career. And hopefully, he will be back next year at the Shanghai Masters, as well as the top players on the ATP Tour. With that, we end this episode of "Sightline Story." Thank you so much for joining us. Subscribe to "Sightline Story" wherever you listen to podcasts. For more information, you can also check our website, radio.cgtn.com. See you next time. [MUSIC]