ATP Shanghai: Quarter-Final Predictions

Tomas Berdych

1. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v Tomas Berdych

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has his usual ups and down in his third round match with Marcos Baghdatis but did well to finish the match in two sets, 6-2 7-6.  He now takes on Tomas Berdych in what is a difficult quarter to call.  Berdych needed three sets to get past Sam Querrey in what was his third win over the American in as many months.  Tsonga and Berdych played twice in 2011 with the pair splitting wins; Berdych won a three set semi-final in Beijing, meanwhile Tsonga exacted revenge at the ATP World Tour Finals with a straight sets win.  Both players have been in reasonable form and I think it will go the distance... the edge I give to Berdych.

Prediction - Berdych to beat Tsonga in 3 sets

2. Novak Djokovic v Tommy Haas
Tommy Haas was arguably the most impressive performer today as he trounced Janko Tipsarevic, 6-2 6-1.  Haas had already taken out Nicolas Almagro in the first round and is having another fine tournament.  Haas has had a great season with the pinnacle being the title in Halle with top 10 wins over Tomas Berdych and Roger Federer.  He now takes on Novak Djokovic, who has looked equally assured on the hard courts of Shanghai as he came through 6-3 6-3 against Feliciano Lopez.  Haas has won two of their last three encounters and although Djokovic won their last one in Toronto earlier this year, that was in three sets.  Haas has always posed problems for the Serb but I have been impressed with Djokovic's form so far this week and expect him to progress in straight sets.

Prediction - Djokovic to beat Haas in 2 tight sets

Marin Cilic

3. Roger Federer v Marin Cilic
Roger Federer survived a scare in his third round to overturn a first set deficit to progress past the mentally unstable Stanislas Wawrinka, 4-6 7-6 6-0.  It is one of those scorelines where you only need to see the scoreline without watching the match to know what happened! Marin Cilic was also made to work hard from a set down to get past Fernando Verdasco, 4-6 6-1 6-4.  Federer has won all three previous encounters with the most recent of those matches taking place at the 2011 US Open where Federer won in four sets.  I think that after a struggle yesterday, Federer will stroll into the semi-finals.

Prediction - Federer to beat Cilic in 2 sets

4. Andy Murray v Radek Stepanek

Andy Murray has had little trouble in progressing to the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters.  He has been on court for just 57 minutes having received a walkover in the second round and then dishing Alexandr Dolgopolov a swift exit from the tournament in the round of 16.  His opponent will be Radek Stepanek who has had one of the best weeks of his year with two top 20 wins over Richard Gasquet and now John Isner.  The crafty Czech is highly capable of an upset with his attacking style and will pose a test for Murray.  However I expect that the Brit will be up to the challenge...

Prediction - Murray to beat Stepanek in 2 sets

This has been a good week of predictions for me as I have correctly predicted 7 of the 8 quarter-finalists in Shanghai... see here ;-)