Ben Shelton, Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic lead a star-studded field Friday on Stadium Court as the Rolex Shanghai Masters seeds play their first matches at this year's event.
Shelton opens the day session at 12 noon against German Daniel Altmaier, who boasts one of the most elegant one-handed backhands in the game.
World No. 4 Shelton, the recent US Open finalist, will look to avenge his first and only meeting with the World No. 67, who won a tight three-setter on clay in Hamburg earlier this year.
Victory Friday will give Shelton his 40th match win of the year as he continues his bid to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the second consecutive year.
Zverev begins his quest for a first ATP Masters 1000 title of the year against China’s Wu Yibing. The German won their lone meeting in 2023 in Geneva, when Wu retired midway through the first set.
After winning his first two Grand Slam titles this year at Roland Garros and the US Open, Zverev is within reach of becoming the 30th player to rise to World No. 1 in the history of the PIF ATP Rankings.
Djokovic takes an 8-0 head-to-head lead over 2023 Shanghai champion Hubert Hurkacz into their second-round match, which kicks off the night session at 6 p.m.
But Hurkacz has pushed the 102-time tournament champion close in a number of those meetings. When they last met in the Geneva final in 2025, Djokovic needed more than three hours to claw out a 5-7, 7-6(2), 7-6(2) victory after staring down 19 aces.
Hurkacz, the Polish former World No. 6 who is on the verge of returning to the Top 30, also served 19 aces Thursday (this time in two sets) against James Duckworth.
“It’s going to be a fun challenge,” said Hurkacz. “It’s on my list to play some good tennis against him and get a win. He’s got a few of them already… I need to serve well, play well from the baseline and return well. He won the title [in Beijing] again. It’s always a pleasure to share the court with Novak, such a great champion.”
Djokovic owns a record four Shanghai titles and is fresh off clinching a record seventh China Open title earlier this week in Beijing.
“It was a phenomenal week for me, Beijing, the best week of this year, no doubt,” Djokovic said in his pre-tournament press conference Thursday. “I'm trying to build momentum on that here in Shanghai as well, use the confidence and hopefully have another great deep run in this tournament, another tournament in China where I've done very well in my career.”
