The 2008 Tennis Masters Cup was a men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 39th edition of the year-end singles championships, the 34th edition of the year-end doubles championships, and part of the 2008 ATP Tour. It took place at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena in Shanghai, China, from November 9 through November 16, 2008.
Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia won his first year-end championships title in the singles event, defeating ATP No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in the final 6–1, 7–5. Four-time winner, two-time defending champion Roger Federer was defeated in the round-robin stage of the event for the first time in seven consecutive appearances. Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjić of Serbia won the doubles event 7–6, 6–2 over Americans Bob and Mike Bryan in the final for their first year-end championships doubles title together. With the win, they clinched the year-end No. 1 spot for the first time together. Nestor successfully defended his 2007 Tennis Masters Cup title with his new partner Zimonjić, while the other defending champion, Mark Knowles, lost in the round robin, with Mahesh Bhupathi.
It was the last time that the singles and doubles year-end championships took place in Shanghai as the Tennis Masters Cup. Starting in 2009, the season-ending event went to London, United Kingdom, at the O2 arena, under the new name of ATP World Tour Finals. Shanghai instead received a newly created event in the 2009 season, the Shanghai Masters, which take places earlier in the ATP calendar.
Finals
Singles
Novak Djokovic defeated Nikolay Davydenko 6–1, 7–5
Doubles
Daniel Nestor / Nenad Zimonjić defeated Bob Bryan / Mike Bryan 7–6(7–3), 6–2
Points and prize money StageSinglesDoubles1PointsChampionRR + $940,000RR +$100,000RR + 900Runner-upRR + $315,000RR +$25,000RR + 400Round-robin win per match$100,000$15,000200Participation fee$100,0002$50,0003– RR is points or prize money won in the round-robin stage. 1 Prize money for doubles is per team. 2 Pro-rated on a per-match basis: $50,000 = 1 match, $75,000 = 2 matches, $100,000 = 3 matches 3 3 Pro-rated on a per-match basis: $20,000 = 1 match, $35,000 = 2 matches, $50,000 = 3 matches An undefeated singles champion would earn the maximum 1,500 points and $1,340,000 in prize money ($100,000 participation, $300,000 undefeated round robin, $315,000 semifinal win, $625,000 final win) An undefeated doubles champion would earn the maximum 1,500 points and $220,000 in prize money ($50,000 participation, $45,000 undefeated round robin, $25,000 semifinal win, $100,000 final win). While each of them would get 1,500 points, the $220,000 would be split, so $110,000 for each member of the team.
Qualification
Spots were awarded to the top seven players and the top seven doubles teams in the 2008 ATP Race, with one spot reserved for Grand Slam champions who finished within the Top 20 players or teams of the ATP Race rankings. Two more players and teams also went to Shanghai as alternates in case of withdrawals.
Singles On July 9 – after the 2008 Wimbledon Championships – the first three players to qualify for the 2008 year-end championships were selected: ATP No. 2 Rafael Nadal of Spain, World No. 1 Roger Federer of Switzerland and third-ranked Novak Djokovic of Serbia. These players, who held the top three spots of the ATP rankings during the whole year, secured their fourth, seventh and second appearance respectively in the season's finale.
Rafael Nadal, who reached his first hard courts Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open (lost to Tsonga), qualified after winning the French Open for a fourth consecutive time, matching Björn Borg's record performance from 1978 to 1981. He broke Roger Federer's streak of five consecutive titles in Wimbledon as he defeated the Swiss 6–4, 6–4, 6–7, 6–7, 9–7, in a four-hour-forty-eight-minute-long final – the second longest championship match in Wimbledon's history – to become the first tennis player to complete the Roland-Garros/Wimbledon double since Borg. In addition to the two Grand Slam titles, Nadal had also, at the time of his qualification, reached two finals in Chennai (lost to Youhzny) and Miami (lost to Davydenko), won his fourth consecutive title in Monte Carlo (def. Federer) and at Barcelona (def. Ferrer), and his first in Hamburg (def. Federer) and at London's Queen's Club (def. Djokovic), where he became, two weeks before his Wimbledon victory, the first Spaniard to win a grass court title since Andrés Gimeno in 1972. After his qualification, Nadal clinched a second title at the Canada Masters (def. Kiefer), a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics (def. González), and a semifinal run at the US Open (lost to Murray). On August 18, after 160 weeks at ATP No. 2, Rafael Nadal overtook Roger Federer, breaking his 237-week streak at the top spot, to become the 24th player to hold the No. 1 rank in the twenty-five years of computerised-rankings history. Nadal eventually withdrew in the run-up to the tournament, citing fatigue.
Roger Federer started his 2008 campaign with his first exit before the final in a major event since a 2005 defeat by Rafael Nadal at the French Open, when he lost in the Australian Open semifinals to Djokovic. After announcing he had contracted mononucleosis in December 2007, Federer hired clay-court specialist José Higueras to coach him, first during the clay court season, but eventually for the rest of the year. Federer qualified after he reached his third consecutive French Open final (lost to Nadal), where he suffered a 6–1, 6–3, 6–0 defeat, and his sixth consecutive Wimbledon final (lost to Nadal). After failing to beat the five-consecutive-title streak at the All England Club record and losing his third Grand Slam tournament in a row for the first time since 2002, Federer described the Wimbledon final as his "hardest loss by far". When he qualified, Federer had lost two more finals to Nadal in Monte Carlo and Hamburg, and won only two ATP International Series titles in Estoril (def. Davydenko) and Halle (def. Kohlschreiber). Despite losing his number 1 spot to Nadal in August, the rest of Federer's season featured better results with a third consecutive title in Basel (def. Nalbandian), and a fifth straight victory at the US Open (def. Murray) which brought him one Grand Slam title short of Pete Sampras's record of fourteen.
Novak Djokovic had the best start of the season, as the Serb reached his second straight Grand Slam final after the 2007 US Open, and won his first major title at the Australian Open (def. Tsonga), becoming the first man other that Federer or Nadal to win a Grand Slam since Marat Safin in Melbourne three years before. Djokovic reached his fifth straight Grand Slam semifinal at the French Open (lost to Nadal), but suffered his earliest exit in a major since a first round loss at the 2006 Australian Open, in the second round of the Wimbledon Championships (lost to Safin). In the first part of the year, Djokovic also reached the London's Queen's Club final (lost to Nadal), and won two ATP Masters Series titles in Indian Wells (def. Fish) and Rome (def. Wawrinka). After qualifying for the year-end event, Djokovic lost to Nadal in the semifinals of the Beijing Olympics tennis event, but defeated James Blake in the third place match to win a Bronze Medal for Serbia. Despite this run, Djokovic failed to win another title in 2008 until the Tennis Masters Cup. He could not defend his 2007 final appearance at the US Open (lost to Federer), reaching only two tournaments finals in Cincinnati (lost to Murray) and Bangkok (lost to Tsonga).
The fourth qualifier, announced after the US Open on September 9, was Andy Murray of Great Britain, who secured his first Tennis Masters Cup ticket – the first for a Briton since Tim Henman in the 2004 edition.
Andy Murray, who started the year just outside the Top Ten, qualified after improving his Grand Slam performances throughout the season. After defeats in the first round of the Australian Open (lost to Tsonga), and in the third round of the French Open (lost to Almagro), Murray reached his first quarterfinals in a major at the Wimbledon Championships (lost to Nadal), after coming back from a two-sets-to-love deficit to beat 2007 Wimbledon semifinalist Richard Gasquet in the fourth round. Murray capped his season in majors with his first Grand Slam final – the first for a Briton since Greg Rusedski lost in the 1997 US Open final – at the US Open (lost to Federer), after defeating Nadal, in his first tournament as World No. 1, in the semifinals. By that time in the season, Murray had already won two International Series titles in Doha (def. Wawrinka), Marseille (def. Ančić) and his first Masters Series shield in Cincinnati (def. Djokovic). Murray consolidated his fourth place in the rankings after the US Open by winning two more titles at the Madrid Masters (def. Simon) and in Saint Petersburg (def. Golubev), where he was the defending champion.
The fifth player to be selected, on October 19, was Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who obtained his fourth consecutive qualification for the year-end championships.
Nikolay Davydenko, a two-time Grand Slam semifinalist in 2007, never went into second week at a major in 2008. He had early exits in the fourth round at the Australian Open (lost to Youzhny), in the third round at the French Open (lost to Ljubičić), in the first round at the Wimbledon Championships (lost to Becker), and in the fourth round at the US Open (lost to Müller). Though he did not defend his 2007 title in Moscow, Davydenko performed better in smaller events in 2008, reaching an International Series final in Estoril (lost to Federer), and winning two International Series titles in Pörtschach (def. Mónaco) and Warsaw (def. Robredo), and his second career Masters shield in Miami (def. Nadal).
The last three qualifiers, who locked their spots during the final event before the year-end championships, at the Paris Masters, were Andy Roddick of the United States, qualified for the sixth straight year (withdrew in 2005) on October 30, Juan Martín del Potro of Argentina, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, who both qualified in the last two days of the event and ended in the Top Eight for the first time.
Andy Roddick did not perform as well as in previous seasons in Grand Slam tournaments, exiting in the third round of the Australian Open (lost to Kohlschreiber), withdrawing from the 2008 French Open (due to a right shoulder injury contracted in the semifinals of the Rome Masters), crashing in a four-setter in the second round of Wimbledon (lost to Tipsarević), and matching his 2007 US Open performance with a quarterfinal in New York (lost to Djokovic). During the rest of the season, Roddick lost one final in Los Angeles (lost to del Potro), and captured three titles in San Jose (def. Štěpánek), Dubai (def. López), and Beijing (def. Sela), clinching the qualification when he reached the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters.
Juan Martín del Potro lost in the second round of all first three majors; at the Australian Open (lost to Ferrer), the French Open (lost to Bolelli), and Wimbledon (lost to Wawrinka). After Wimbledon, del Potro went on to win his first four titles in as many tournaments in Stuttgart (def. Gasquet), Kitzbühel (def Melzer), Los Angeles (def. Roddick) and Washington (def. Troicki), becoming the first player ever to do so. In the rest of the year, del Potro extended his 23-match streak to the quarterfinals of the US Open (lost to Murray), and reached another final in Tokyo (lost to Berdych). Del Potro's qualification came during the Paris Masters, when Tsonga defeated other Masters Cup hopeful James Blake, the only other contender for del Potro's place, in the semifinals.