Roger Federer’s South American curse returned to haunt him in Shanghai as Chilean Fernando Gonzalez recovered from a first set drubbing to inflict the Swiss supremo’s ninth defeat of the year, 3-6, 7-6, 7-5.

Two years ago at the same Shanghai Qi Zhong Tennis Centre, Argentina’s David Nalbandian came back from two sets down to beat Federer in an epic four-and-a-half-hour ATP Masters final. Memories of that encounter came flooding back as the talented Chilean, cheered on by a small by vociferous band of countrymen and women, fought tenaciously for every point and repeatedly passed an occasionally leaden-footed Federer.

Gonzalez, nicknamed Mano de Piedra (Stone Hand), possesses some of the most ferocious grounds strokes in the game, including a whipped backhand that could cut diamonds, and he used this armoury to full effect. After a one-sided 30-minute first set, during which Federer handed out an all-court-game master class, Gonzalez rode his luck and battled hard throughout a closely fought second set, before thrashing Federer 7-1 in the tie-break.

The third set followed serve until Gonzalez broke in the eleventh game. He then served out the match with ease against a visibly tiring opponent. The Chilean’s first victory over Federer in four years was also the first time the Swiss player had been defeated in two successive matches (he was recently beaten by Nalbandian in the third round of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris) since 2003.

In the evening’s other singles match, fifth-seeded American Andy Roddick beat the under-fire fourth-seed, Russia’s Nikolay Davidenko, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Playing only his second match in almost two months, due to injury, Roddick should have closed out the match in straight sets, but suffered a lapse after breaking Davidenko to go 4-3 up in the second set, allowing the Russian to take the next three games for the loss of just a single point. Roddick rallied in a disappointing third set, and closed out the match in comfort. 

Keywords : Tennis, Masters, Shanghai

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