Fernando Gonzalez caused the second major shock at the season-ending ATP tour championships in Shanghai, China, yesterday. After the previous day's upset victory for Spain's David Ferrer against world No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who would have thought that Fernando Gonzalez of Chile would beat formidable world No. 1 Roger Federer.

When you think of Chilean tennis players it is wise to think that they are all clay court specialists. Remember Marcelo Rios, a former world No. 1 who won most of his $9 million prize money on the European clay courts, and Olympic gold medallist Nicolas Massu, another who loves the slow surfaces. 

However Fernando Gonzalez is different.  Earlier this year the world No. 7 reached the final of the Australian Open, the first major of the season. On his way to the final Gonzlaez defeated an array of world class players such as James Blake, Tommy Haas and Rafael Nadal before falling to a dominant Federer, showing his liking for the hard courts. 

Back to Shanghai, and Federer hardly lost a point on his serve throughout the first two sets and was soon a set up as he broke Gonzalez once in the first set to take it 6-3. The second set saw Gonzalez become more competitive and the Chilean's forehand became stronger. With the second set level at 6-6 it was time for a tie-breaker. Federer looked to have the match sewn up as his serve was so consistent, but Gonzalez raced into a 6-0 lead with some outrageously powerful shots.

Federer was beginning to doubt himself as the match went into a third set. Both players had numerous break point chances in the third set. Gonzalez clearly had got the key to handling Federer's serve and finally broke the Swiss master for the first time in the match to lead 6-5.  Knowing the resilience of the World No. 1, the crowd could have forgiven the Chilean if he had gone on to lose the match, but he didn't. He served an almost perfect last game and came out the winner 3-6 7-6 7-5. Fantastic match.

Federer has now been beaten in his last three tournaments, twice by  Argentinian David Nalbandian in Paris and Madrid and now by Gonzalez. This surely has to be good for the game as a whole, as one player dominating the game as Federer has can become boring, nothing against his brilliance.  However with Nalbandian's recent victories in two Masters events, Nadal so good on the clay and both rising stars Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic imporving their games, things look good for the future of mens tennis.