SHANGHAI – Former 7th place David Goffin recovered from close losses on the tiebreaker in the first set to dominate Alexandre Mueller with a 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 victory in the first round of the Shanghai Masters on Wednesday.
Goffin, 34, reached four Grand Slam quarterfinals, won six ATP titles and reached the Masters 1000 Finals at Cincinnati.
All Shanghai’s top seed players have received their first bize, and players like Jannik Sinner, who won the China Open Final in Beijing on Wednesday, and Novak Jjokovic will not play opening matches in the second round until Friday.
The fourth seed, 38-year-old Djokovic, is Shanghai’s four-time champion, playing for the first time since losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open semi-finals.
Alcaraz, who defeated Taylor Fritz on Tuesday in the Japan Open Finals, announced that he would not play in Shanghai after his victory in Tokyo.
“I’ve struggled with some physical issues, but after discussing with my team, I believe that the best decision is rest and recovery,” top ranked Alcaraz wrote on Instagram.