Kohlschreiber advances to play Del Potro in Shanghai

Beijing, Oct 9 (IANS/EFE) Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber and Italy’s Andreas Seppi won their first-round matches Tuesday at the Shanghai Masters. They will now take on Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro and Switzerland’s Roger Federer respectively.

Kohlschreiber defeated Chinese wildcard Mao-Xin Ghong 7-5, 6-2 in just over an hour, hitting nine aces and winning 90 percent of his first-serve points during the contest.

The German also capitalised on his chances against his opponent’s serve, converting all three of his break points.

Seppi, who is fresh off reaching last week’s doubles final in Beijing, where he partnered with countryman Fabio Fognini, cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 win over former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt.

Del Potro, the No. 6 seed, comes to Shanghai after winning his 16th career singles title in Tokyo with a victory in the final over fast-rising Canadian Milos Raonic.

The fifth-seeded Federer, who also is competing in the Shanghai doubles with Chinese partner Ze Zhang, is trying to break his way out of slump that has caused his world ranking to slip to No. 7.

The Shanghai Masters is one of nine ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events on the tennis calendar and the only one played in Asia. EFE