By ,
Published January 13, 2015
Shanghai, China (SportsNetwork.com) - Ninth seed Richard Gasquet suffered an opening-round upset, while surging Canadian star Milos Raonic advanced at the $3.85 million Shanghai Masters tennis event.
Promising Canadian Vasek Pospisil doused the U.S. Open semifinalist and world No. 10 Gasquet 6-3, 6-4, while last week's Tokyo runner-up and the recent Bangkok champion Raonic, seeded 10th this week, handled Polish qualifier Michal Przysiezny 6-4, 6-4 on the hardcourts at Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena.
"It's a huge win for me," Pospisil said after ousting Gasquet.
In other first-round action involving seeds, No. 12 Japanese Kei Nishikori topped Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-4; Benoit Paire upset No. 13 fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-3; No. 15 Spaniard Nicolas Almagro got past Japanese qualifier Go Soeda 7-6 (7-5), 6-2; and No. 16 resurgent Spaniard Tommy Robredo whipped compatriot Albert Montanes 6-4, 6-1.
Several other men reached the second round, including Italians Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi, who drubbed wild card and former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 6-2, Austrian Jurgen Melzer, German Philipp Kohlschreiber, Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, Spaniards Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez, South African Kevin Anderson, and Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov. Verdasco will tangle with the formidable Raonic on Wednesday.
Second-round matches will also come Wednesday for this week's top-eight seeds, each of whom received opening-round byes. Top seed Novak Djokovic will take on Spaniard Marcel Granollers, while second seed, new world No. 1 and 2009 Shanghai runner-up Rafael Nadal will battle Dolgopolov, and 2010 Shanghai runner-up Roger Federer will face Seppi.
The Australian Open champion and U.S. Open and Wimbledon runner-up Djokovic is the reigning Shanghai Masters champ, having beaten then two-time reigning champion Andy Murray in last year's final. Djokovic also beat the U.S. and French Open champion Nadal this past Sunday in the final at the China Open in Beijing.
French Open runner-up and 2011 Shanghai finalist David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych and last week's Tokyo titlist Juan Martin del Potro will also be among those seeing action on Day 4.
This week's champion will collect $730,000.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/gasquet-ousted-raonic-advances-in-shanghai