Shanghai – QF

At the age of 30, Feliciano Lopez [28] has a chance for the biggest achievement in his professional life. The Spaniard repeated his best ‘Masters’ performance in Shanghai, but this time managed to do this in impressive style – faced only 1 break point in the last two matches (Berdych, F.Mayer). Two years ago, Lopez retired against Nadal in the Shanghai semi-final at very uncomfortable scoreline (1-6, 0-3), this time he’ll play against the other Spaniard – David Ferrer, with whom leads 6-4 in their H2H. If Lopez wins this match, he will finish the season for the first time in the Top 20 #. The crowd favorite, Kei Nishikori [47] after three tight wins, without serious troubles defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-4, 6-3 – both guys fought for their first ‘Masters’ semi-final. “I feel like home here,” said Nishikori, “It means a lot to play semis here. I’m really excited now. I think I started well today. I knew he [was] going to hit a lot of slice and I have to be careful. I was trying to not go for too much, just try to [be] steady on the court, and that worked.” 21-year-old Nishikori will be the first Japanese to enter the Top 40 next week (the best player from Japan in the Open era – Shuzo Matsuoka – reached career-high No. 46 in 1992).

# Lopez’s ranking in the last 10 years: 2001 – 159; 2002 – 62; 2003 – 28, 2004 – 25; 2005 – 33; 2006 – 79; 2007 – 35; 2008 – 30; 2009 – 47; 2010 – 32.