7 withdrawals before even the round of 16: the 2025 Shanghai edition sets a sad record
The 2025 Shanghai Masters 1000 has just crossed a worrying threshold. With 7 withdrawals or forfeits recorded even before the tournament has reached the round of 16, this edition directly enters the top 6 of the most "decimated" tournaments in the history of the Masters 1000 circuit, which has seen 312 since 1990.
It's a chilling statistic: only five tournaments have fared worse so far, and none had seen such a wave of withdrawals this early in the competition. Even worse, the third round isn't even finished yet.
Shanghai 2025 is the 67th tournament with a draw expanded to 96 players, a format meant to ensure density, spectacle, and competitiveness over time. However, the dynamic is quite different this week in China.
Among the 312 Masters 1000 tournaments played since 1990, only five have recorded a total higher than or equal to 8 forfeits/withdrawals:
- Shanghai 2009: 9 forfeits/withdrawals
- Madrid 2025: 9 forfeits/withdrawals
- Miami 2013: 8 forfeits/withdrawals
- Cincinnati 2025: 8 forfeits/withdrawals
- Indian Wells 2010: 7 forfeits/withdrawals
The current tournament already equals this last one and could well surpass it.
Cincinnati 
Madrid 
Shanghai 
As a laboratory for tomorrow’s tennis, does the Next Gen Masters have a future? 
Tennis: the little-known truths about the offseason, between rest, stress and physical survival 
What if tennis lost its soul? The case of robotized officiating, between tradition and a dehumanized modernity 
Features - Saudi Arabia, injuries, war, and business: the fascinating underbelly of tennis revealed by TennisTemple 