The final event of Shanghai Masters began in China amid speculation that a new face might be on the front pages of the world’s tennis newspapers when this event reaches its last day. Eight players divided into two groups of four will play a round robin, the two winners will move on to the semi finals, and those winners will play for $1.34 million in the final.

The gold group is comprised of Novak Jovanovich, Nicolay Davydenko, Juan Martin del Potro and Jo Wilfried Tsonga.

The red group is comprised of Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick and Giles Simon.

In the round robin section a player will play all three of his opponents within his group, 3 matches in total. A loss to any of the others forces a player into a position where he has to win both of his remaining matches, if two players are tied in wins then the one who has the best win/loss record in sets will move on. It is possible, though highly unlikely for all players to have a 2-1 win/loss record.

The venue in Shanghai is the futuristic Qi Zhong stadium, a hard surface indoor court facility that is quite acceptable to the players.

The first couple of days have produced some surprising results. With Rafael Nadal unable to play because of his knee problems, there really was no pre-tournament favourite. Federer as the highest seeded player headed up the red group and Djokovic the gold, but it is Andy Murray who is the better’s choice. He won two Masters Series titles in Madrid and Paris, and is playing his best tennis of his life.

Day one saw the two rookies in the Gold group, del Potro and Tsonga, go down to defeat to the two veterans Novak Djokovic and Davydenko who are scheduled to play today. Earlier today del Potro defeated Tsonga which almost certainly eliminates the likable Frenchman from the tournament.

Giles Simon defeated Federer in the first match played in the red group, while in the battle of the Andy’s, Murray defeated Roddick. Murray will play Federer tomorrow in an early must win situation for Roger Federer, a second loss would virtually eliminate him from the competition. In the other match Roddick will take on Simon, and a loss by Roddick would almost certainly be the end of his sojourn in Shanghai.

These eight players who have emerged as the game’s best have much in common in the way they play. Interestingly, the only player to play a serve and volley type of game is Andy Roddick, not in the style of John McEnroe or Stefan Edberg, but he continually rushed to the net as he tried to disrupt Murray’s game. Baseline shot making, court coverage, low risk tennis seems to be the order of the day for all the successful players. Short returns provide easy winners for the opposition, and these professionals miss few opportunities to put the ball out of reach.

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