World number one, Italian Jannik Sinner, will face Russian Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 in Shanghai, after beating American Ben Shelton 6-4, 7-6 (7/1) on Wednesday.
Shelton, ranked 16th in the ATP, eliminated Sinner at the same stage of the tournament last year, but this time the Italian seemed confident from the start of the match, winning in 1h28.
The US Open winner took the lead in the ninth game of the first set, breaking on a long shot from Shelton, then dominated the deciding game of the second set.
“It was very hard, you don’t have much control when you play against him… I just tried to stay mentally strong”Sinner said.
Medvedev, world No.5, for his part eliminated the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (12th), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
The two players were opposed for the 14th time on the circuit, and the Russian now leads ten victories to four.
Tsitsipas started the second set strong, taking the opponent’s serve in the first game, but Medvedev broke in the fourth and eighth games to advance.
Medvedev and Sinner have already met four times this season.
The Italian won in the semi-final in Miami, in the quarter-final at the US Open and in the final at the Australian Open, but the Russian, crowned in Shanghai in 2019, ended the hopes of the Italian in the round of 16 at Wimbledon in an epic five-set fight.
In the semi-final, the winner could find the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz (N.2), who logically dominated on Wednesday the last Frenchman in the running, Gaël Monfils (46th), 6-4, 7-5.
Alcaraz will previously face the Czech Tomas Machac (33rd), who defeated the American Tommy Paul (13th), 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Like Sinner, the Spaniard was eliminated in the round of 16 last year in Shanghai, and the two rivals therefore have big points to gain in the Chinese megalopolis.
This is also the case for Serbian Novak Djokovic, who easily dismissed Russian Roman Safiullin 6-3, 6-2. Forfeited last year, the former world No.1 holds the record for success in Shanghai, with four titles.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love playing tennis in China”declared the « Djoker ».
“I feel very comfortable here, thanks to the support I receive”he added, thanking his many fans.
He will nevertheless have to be wary in the quarters of Jakub Mensik, the great hope of Czech tennis, who defeated the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (10th) in 1h13, 6-3, 6-2.
The 19-year-old had already impressed by eliminating Russian Andrey Rublev, 6th player in the world, in the second round.