Fernando Gonzalez Finally Defeats Roger Federer

Chilean tennis player defeats World's N°1 at Shanghai Masters Cup

November 12, 2007 will be a day that Fernando Gonzalez and many Chilean tennis fans are sure to remember for the rest of their lives. For the first time the Chilean player was able to beat Roger Federer after having lost on ten previous occasions. It was a major feat for Gonzalez since his opponent has been described as "the most perfect player in history" by a former tennis great such as John MacEnroe, or as "the best player I have faced " by Andre Agassi.
At 25, Roger Federer has been in the first place of the ATP rankings since 2004 and until now has won a total of 52 tournaments in his career and in 2007 alone has earned a total of US$7.405.620 in prize money. At the indoor arena in Shanghai it seemed that Federer would yet again defeat Gonzalez since the Swiss player won the first set easily by 6-3. In the second set Gonzalez fought back and won the support of the Chinese crowd by winning 7-6 after a tiebreak and so the final result would have to be settled in a thrilling third set. The action continued quite balanced but in a spectacular turn of events, Gonzalez broke Federer´s serve in the 11th game to go up 6-5 and would be serving for the match in the next game. After two hours of play, Gonzalez was winning by 40-15 when Federer hit the ball outside the boundaries of the court and the crowd roared as the Chilean player lifted his arms in a sign of victory. Andy Roddick of the U.S. ( ranked N° 5 by the ATP) will be Gonzalez´s next opponent on Wednesday.
During his career Gonzalez has won 8 ATP tournaments and one of his finest moments came in the 2004 Olympic Games as together with Nicholas Massu, they won the gold medal for Chile in doubles and also Gonzalez won a bronze medal in the singles. This victory by Gonzalez was not the first upset of this years Masters Cup since on Sunday David Ferrer of Spain defeated Novak Djokovic, a Serbian player that has been in great form this year and is currently ranked third by the ATP.

Fernando Gonzalez Qualifies for Shanghai Masters Cup

Chilean tennis player is among eight best in the World

First the good news: for the first time in his career, Chile´s Fernando Gonzalez qualified directly to play in this year's version of an event that has become the most prestigious in the professional tennis circuit and that will begin on November 11 in the Chinese city. The bad news: Gonzalez has been drawn to play in the same group as Roger Federer, probably the best tennis player of all time and currently in first place of the ATP rankings with 3.400 points, whom he has never been able to beat Federer in their ten previous matches. In 2007 Gonzalez is currently in 7th place of the ranking with 785 points, has only won at the Beijing Open, but has accumulated total prize money of US$1.219.330. Even so the Swiss master is not invincible, but he is to be respected since he was the champion of the Shanghai Tournament in 2006. The other two players drawn in the same group as Federer and Gonzalez are Nikolai Davidenko of Russia with 1.300 points and Andy Roddick of the U.S.A with a total of 955 points. There may be old scores to settle when Gonzalez plays Roddick since this last player was part of the U.S. team that knocked Chile out of the Davis Cup in 2006 during a controversial series played in Rancho Mirage, California. The other group will include two Spanish players, Rafael Nadal (2nd in ATP rankings with 2100 points), David Ferrer (710 points) , Novak Djokovic of Serbia with 1750 points and Richard Gasquet (France) with 670 points.
Even if they don't win the tournament, each player will be rewarded with a life size replica of one of the famous Ming Dynasty "Terracota Warriors" that were discovered some years ago in the tomb of Emperor Kin, that ruled China from 210 to 209 B.C.