Federer confirmed for Masters showing

• Source: Global Times
• [09:13 September 08 2010]
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By Ni Dandan

Organizers of the 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters Tuesday assured tennis fans that World No.2 player Roger Federer will take part in the tournament next month, amid concerns that the Swiss tennis ace might pull out of the competition as he did last year.

"He will arrive in the city a few days before the start of the games," a public relations officer for the tournament surnamed Duan told the Global Times Tuesday. She added that plans for his trip to the city have not yet been disclosed.

Following a late no-show by the UK's World No.1 snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan at the ongoing Shanghai Masters, fans in the city Tuesday expressed anxiety over whether Federer plans on doing the same for the Shanghai stop of the ATP 1000 series, the Rolex-sponsored tournament that marks its second year in the city from October 9 to 17.

"He was supposed to come last year, but in the end he didn't show up, and we were so disappointed after all the advertising that had heavily promoted him," Yang Tianyi, a local tennis fan, told the Global Times Tuesday. "With O'Sullivan cancelling his trip to the city this week, we just want to be sure we'll get the chance to see Federer this year."

Federer, who last competed in the city two years ago for the Tennis Masters Cup - before the tournament was bumped up to the ATP 1000 series, where he suffered an embarrassingly fatal blow in the first round - promised Chinese media last month that he would return to Shanghai next month, a trip his national pavilion at the Expo Park hopes to take advantage of.

"We're hoping he'll be able to swing by, but we can't announce anything for sure at this point," Li Dan, a public relations officer of the Switzerland Pavilion, told the Global Times Tuesday. "He's got a very busy schedule."

Meanwhile, the Spain Pavilion, which features a video of their country's World No.1 tennis player Rafael Nadal, is also trying to secure a visit by their athletic mega-star, widely popular amongst Chinese fans despite a disappointing defeat in the Shanghai tournament last year to Russia's World No.6 Nikolay Davydenko.

"We know that Expo organizers are also trying to get him on board," Waisze Leung, media coordinator at the Spain Pavilion, told the Global Times Tuesday. "But that doesn't affect our agenda with him; we're trying to see if Nadal will have some time to stop by in between his games."