Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner might have started their 2024 Shanghai Masters campaigns a day later, but they already have an advantage over their rivals.
The two players competed in the ATP 500 final at the China Open in Beijing on October 2nd, and after that, they had to quickly move to Shanghai, as the ATP Masters 1000 tournament there started on the same day.
Initially, the two were supposed to play their first match less than 48 hours after that. However, the tournament organizers helped them by postponing their first match by one day.
They both won their second-round matches after having a first-round bye, and both also succeeded in their third-round matches, even though Sinner needed three sets to beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
On the other hand, Alcaraz cruised through his matches and both players are now in the fourth round of the tournament, and very quickly their disadvantage turned into an advantage over rivals.
First, there was a chance that they would have to play their first match in Shanghai less than 48 hours after the China Open, but after that didn't materialize, they were still technically disadvantaged by having to play matches in back-to-back days.
Now that they have successfully completed those matches, the World No. 1 and No. 2 players are caught up with the aftermath of their final in Beijing, but other players were disadvantaged.
The tournament organizers in Shanghai have struggled with rain in the past two days. As a result, many matches were postponed, and some players might even need to play two matches in one day.
That applies mostly for the bottom part of the draw, not Sinner's and Alcaraz's, in which players still have to complete their second-round matches, while Sinner and Alcaraz are already in the fourth round, having played two matches.
For example, Frances Tiafoe, Flavio Cobolli, Holger Rune, Lorenzo Musetti, Karen Khachanov, and Jordan Thompson have yet to play a match in Shanghai this year.
Some of them might have to play two matches in one day, and while Alcaraz and Sinner might face one of them only in the final, they will have advantage also over their close rivals in their part of the draw.
While they will now have time to rest and recover, their fourth-round opponents (Ben Shelton or Roberto Carballes Baena for Sinner, and Gael Monfils or Ugo Humbert for Alcaraz) still have to play their third-round match, meaning that, should they succeed in completing that on Monday, they will have to play in back-to-back days.
In addition, given the forecast, there is a chance that some matches might also be postponed on Monday, so Sinner and Alcaraz might have to play opponents who had to play two matches in one day, giving them a significant advantage.
While all of those players will have to battle the weather, Sinner can focus on his recovery, as he admitted after his third-round win over Etcheverry.
"Well, it depends what I have to do. I'm for sure trying to sleep in in the morning which, you know, I have to see if I play tomorrow tennis or not, this is a different question, because I feel like I played quite a lot in the past week, you know, a lot of matches, a packed schedule."
"Yeah, I feel like it's important now to trying to recover, so it's going to be, let's see tomorrow. Maybe do a little bit of gym, and let's see if I come here, because the whole day is quite far, so, you know, making one hour and one hour is two hours in the car, so let's see."
0 Comments