Two ATP 500 events just concluded this past Sunday.  One was held in Tokyo, Japan where Juan Martin del Potro was the top seed when both Roger Federer and Andy Murray skipped to recover from injuries and fatigue.

Since del Potro lost early, this left the talented Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the highest seed remaining and he used it to full effect to reach the finals and beat Russian, Mikhail Youzhny, in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.

The other tournament was held in Beijing, China in what appeared to be the Olympic tennis stadium.  Novak Djokovic was the second seed as well.  Rafael Nadal reached the semifinals in his first tournament back since his abdominal injury at the US Open.  Much like the US Open, where Rafa was drummed out by the hard hitting del Potro, Rafa again ran into a tall player who bludgeoned the ball.  Except instead of playing del Potro, Rafa had his hands full with the young Croat, Marin Cilic, who was up 5-0 in the first set before Rafa could even win a game.

Taking a page out of del Potro’s book, Cilic played a hard hitting semifinal and knocked out the world number 2 in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3.

However, playing Rafa is not the same as playing Novak Djokovic.  Although Djokovic reached his 8th final of the year, he’s only won 3 titles (Dubai, Belgrade, and Beijing) and no Slam final.  Djokovic played, at times, brilliant tennis, keeping up the ping pong match between he and Cilic showing that while he’s no longer in the top 3, he can still play a good game.  Djokovic won the finals in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6(4).

The Asian tour continues for its third week with a Masters 1000 tournament held in Shanghai.  This tournament is new to the Masters 1000.  Since there are 9 events, one event was dropped, namely, Hamburg.  Madrid went from being an indoors tournament (held roughly when Shanghai was being held) to a clay tournament (replacing Hamburg).  Hamburg was converted to an ATP 500 event and played after Wimbledon.

Nadal, Djokovic, del Potro, Roddick, and Tsonga are the top 5 seeds in Shanghai.  Notably missing are #1 Roger Federer and #3 Andy Murray.

Currently, the top 8 point getters in the race are: Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, del Potro, Roddick, Tsonga and Davydenko.  The top 5 have already qualified for the event, with Roddick, Tsonga, and Davydenko still in doubt.  The year end tournament will be held November 22-29 in London.