Kazakhstan's Timofey Skatov (world No. 210) and Alexander Shevchenko (No. 111) opened their campaigns in the qualifying draw of the Shanghai Masters, a tournament with a prize purse of $9.4 million, with the doubles partners from the recent Asian Games 2026 enjoying contrasting fortunes in their first singles matches at the Chinese ATP 1000 event, infohub.kz reports.

Skatov eased past Greece's Stefanos Sakellaridis (No. 135) in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2. The Kazakh will face Australia's Bernard Tomic (No. 185) for a place in the main draw after Tomic beat France's Terence Atmane (No. 99) 6-3, 4-6, 5-3 (retired) in the first round of qualifying.

Shevchenko was less fortunate with the draw. Japan's Yoshito Nishioka (No. 218), ranked well below Alexander, nonetheless poses a highly awkward matchup for the Kazakh. At last year's Shanghai tournament, Nishioka came through qualifying and beat the Kazakh 6-1, 6-2 in the first round. He then went on to defeat 13th seed Andrey Rublev of Russia 2-6, 6-1, 6-4. Only Spain's Jaime Munar stopped him, in the third round, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.

Today Yoshito repeated his Shanghai victory over Alexander the Second, encore style, 6-2, 6-4. Incidentally, Alexander the First will also play in Shanghai. In the first round, Alexander Bublik, who dropped to No. 22 in the ATP rankings today, has a bye. In the second round he will face either China's Zhang Zhizhen (No. 166) or the Czech Republic's Tomas Machac (No. 75).

The doubles draw for the Shanghai tournament has not yet been released.

The Rolex Shanghai Masters (its sponsored name) is a prestigious men's ATP 1000 tennis tournament. The only Masters 1000 event outside North America and Europe, it took its current form in 2009.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic, the record-holder for hard-court titles in Shanghai, has won here four times. Britain's Andy Murray lifted the main trophy three times, and Switzerland's Roger Federer twice. Russia's Nikolay Davydenko and Daniil Medvedev, Poland's Hubert Hurkacz and Italy's Jannik Sinner have also left the tournament as champions.

Defending champion Valentin Vacherot of Monaco beat France's Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in last year's final. Notably, in the second round of Shanghai 2025, Vacherot defeated our Bublik 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.