SHANGHAI — Former No. 7-ranked David Goffin recovered from a close loss in a first-set tiebreaker to dominate Alexandre Müller the rest of the match for a 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-1 win in the first round of the Shanghai Masters.
Goffin, 28, has reached four Grand Slam quarterfinals and has won six ATP titles as well as reaching a Masters 1000 final in Cincinnati.
The top-seeded players in Shanghai all received first-round byes and players such as Jannik Sinner, who won the China Open final in Beijing, and Novak Djokovic will not play their opening matches in the second round until Friday.
Seeded fourth, the 38-year-old Djokovic is a four-time Shanghai champion and is playing for the first time since losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the U.S. Open semifinals.
Alcaraz, who beat Taylor Fritz in the Japan Open final, announced after his win in Tokyo that he won’t play at Shanghai.
“I’ve been struggling with some physical issues and, after discussing with my team, we believe the best decision is to rest and recover,” the top-ranked Alcaraz wrote in an Instagram post.
