Nadal, Djokovic drop Master's matches
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic each dropped round-robin matches Tuesday at the $3.7 million Tennis Master Cup tournament in Shanghai.
Tuesday's results mean each of the top four seeded players in the tournament have lost matches. While most could recover in later round-robin competition and advance to the tournament semifinals, Djokovic, the world No. 3, cannot qualify for the semifinals after two losses this week.
Eighth-seeded Richard Gasquet ripped Djokovic in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, Tuesday and is 1-1 in round-robin play, which finishes up Thursday for the Gold Group. Gasquet broke Djokovic's serve five times, to easily offset the two times he dropped his serve.
Nadal, seeded second, is also 1-1 after losing, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, to sixth-seeded David Ferrer. Ferrer is 2-0 in round-robin play after the tough 2-hour, 40-minute match.
Thursday's matches have Nadal playing Djokovic and Ferrer meeting Gasquet.
The Red Group has its second day of round-robin play Wednesday. Fifth-seeded Andy Roddick and No. 7 Fernando Gonzalez each picked up wins Monday while No. 1 Roger Federer and fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko will be looking for their first victories of the tournament.
The season-ending Masters Cup tournament had six days of round-robin play with the top two players in each group moving into Saturday's semifinals. The tournament title is to be decided Sunday. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International
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