(Shanghai) 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 16e at the ATP, had eliminated Sinner at the same stage of the tournament last year, but this time the Italian seemed confident from the start of the match, won in 1 hour 28 minutes.
The U.S. 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 tough, you don’t have a lot of 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 (12e), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
PHOTO TINGSHU WANG, REUTERS
Daniel Medvedev
The two players were opposed for the 14e times on the circuit, and the Russian now leads 10 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 the semi-final in Miami, the quarter-final at the US Open and the final at the Australian Open, but the Russian ended the Italian’s hopes 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 (46e), 6-4, 7-5.
Alcaraz will previously face the American Tommy Paul (13e) or the Czech Tomas Machac (33e).
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.