SHANGHAI MASTERS SERIES: OFFICIAL DRAW IS OUT

Shanghai, October 12, 2009

Rafa Nadal will be back in action this week at the Shanghai Masters Series tournament after reaching the semi-finals of the China open yesterday afternoon where he lost to Marin Cilic.

As soon as he arrives in Shanghai with his team he'll concentrate on practicing for this week’s second-round match where he will open (on Center Court most likely) against the winner of the match between James Blake and Ivo Karlovic, both equally talented and very dangerous opponents.

Moving on, he could play the following players:

Third Round: Robredo

Quarterfinals: Monfils, Mathieu, Hewitt or Verdasco.

Semi-finals: Del Potro, Gasquet, Ferrer, Soderling, or Tsonga

Final: Cilic, Roddick, Simon, Gonzalez or Djokovic

Talking about yesterday’s loss, the six-times grand slam champ was very optimistic. “I hope that if I [get to] play a few weeks in row, I can continue to improve and then I’m going to [be able to] close [out] one of these tough tests [eventually],” he explained.

“I am playing well but to play these big matches, you need more confidence. This year has been difficult for me, but when I am happy, I [have been able to make it into] the semi-finals of tournaments every week”.

“My main ambition is just to stay fit for the rest of the season to recapture my rhythm”.

View full draw

Vamos Rafa!

Source: http://www.rafaelnadal.com/nadal/en/home