Every player who beat Rafael Nadal at the Shanghai Masters as he failed to win the title before he retired

For the entirety of his career, Rafael Nadal never managed to claim the Shanghai Masters title. Nadal, a revered tennis player widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time, secured 22 Grand Slam titles throughout his career, complemented by an impressive 36 Masters 1000 victories, a record surpassed only by Novak Djokovic.

The Shanghai Masters is among the nine ATP 1000 tournaments Nadal won, with the city hosting only two of them in his professional journey. Nadal made eight appearances at the Shanghai Masters, yet he was unable to secure the title in any of those instances. His closest encounter came in the inaugural edition of the tournament, where he reached the final but fell short against Nikolay Davydenko, who triumphed 7-6(3), 6-3.

Nadal's second-place finish in 2009 was followed by early exits in his subsequent two appearances, losing to Jurgen Melzer and Florian Mayer in 2010 and 2011 respectively. He withdrew from the 2012 tournament due to a left knee injury and returned in 2013, reaching the semi-finals before being defeated by Juan Martin del Potro. Nadal's failure to win the Shanghai Masters continued unabated as he lost his sole match in 2014 against Feliciano Lopez.

His pattern of reaching the semi-finals in the tournament persisted in 2015, before a loss to Viktor Troicki in 2016. Nadal's final appearance at the Shanghai Masters transpired in 2017, where he faced his most significant rival, Roger Federer. Once again, Nadal was unable to clinch the title as he was defeated by Federer 6-4, 6-3, thereby becoming the first and only player to lose multiple finals at the Shanghai Masters without ever winning it.