Roger Federer & The Bryan Brothers Capture Titles @ The Shanghai Rolex Masters

Written by: Staff on 12th October 2014

Roger Federer & The Bryan Brothers Capture Titles @ The Shanghai Rolex Masters |

By Ricky Dimon

Roger Federer won the Shanghai Rolex Masters for the first time in his career by defeating Gilles Simon 7-6(6), 7-6(2) on Sunday. Federer saved set points in each of the two sets before triumphing in one hour and 53 minutes. It is the 17-time Grand Slam champion’s 23rd career Masters 1000 title.

Both players dropped serve only once in the entire match, Federer in the very first game and Simon while trying to close out the opener at 5-4. Despite the disappointment of failing to seal the deal, Simon recovered to fight off two set points at 5-6 and he later held a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker. Federer snuffed it out with a service winner, then fired another service winner followed by a backhand pass to snag the set.

Serving first in the second set, Simon survived a flurry of difficult games to keep his nose in front en route to a 6-5 advantage. The 29th-ranked Frenchman went ahead 0-30 and had set points at 15-40 and 30-40, but he could not convert. Federer promptly raced through the ensuing ‘breaker to clinch a hard-fought victory.

“It makes me very happy winning here because this tournament means a lot to me,” the 33-year-old Swiss said. “I’ve always enjoyed coming here. I’ve come close a couple of times. I feel unbelievable prestige to win this event–specially putting my hands on the trophy for the first time is a good feeling. I’m very happy with the way I’m playing. Overall I’m just extremely happy right now.”

Bob and Mike Bryan have to be experiencing a similarly content feeling having also prevailed in Shanghai for the first time on Sunday. In a matchup between the 2014 U.S. Open and French Open doubles champions, the Bryan brothers bested Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-2, 7-6(3).

The Americans have now won all 10 Masters 1000 titles (including Hamburg, which is no longer a Masters). They own 31 such trophies and have lifted all of them other than Shanghai more than once.

“It’s another great milestone,” Bob assured. “This week was full of them for us. To come and get in the title match, have a shot at winning the tournament that’s eluded us, complete the Golden Masters, is amazing. It was really the last thing left for us to do. We can definitely shut it down today and be happy guys.”

But the brothers have no plans on shutting it down anytime soon. They have already said that they plan on playing at least through the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Editors Note 1: The Shanghai event was awesome. Our friends Michael Lueveno and Charlie Smith must be thrilled to finally have Roger Federer’s name on their trophy. These guys brought tennis to China! Great vision guys! Bravo to the maestro RF. Bravo to Bob and Mike Bryan. The 2014 trophy is held by the best tennis player ever & The best doubles team ever!

Editors Note 2: FYI. In the first round Roger Federer was down 5 match points. Tennis is a cray cray game. Roger is on a roll. He is heading back to number 1. As of Monday he moves from 3 to 2 in the world rankings. Number one by end of 2014?

Topics: Bob Bryan, Chinese tennis news, Gilles Simon, Mike Bryan, Ricky Dimon, Roger Federer, Shanghai Rolex Masters, Swiss tennis news, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

October 12, 2014 at 9:45 am

@rogerfederer & The @Bryanbrothers & @Bryanbros Capture Titles at the Shanghai @RolexMasters – http://t.co/va6xZ0JtfQ @FedererNews #tennis
RD_Tennistalk says:

October 13, 2014 at 7:04 am

RT @10sBalls_com: @rogerfederer & The @Bryanbrothers & @Bryanbros Capture Titles at the Shanghai @RolexMasters – http://t.co/va6xZ0JtfQ @F…