Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Alexander Muller 6-3 7-5 to set up a 14th head-to-head clash against Danil Medvedev at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. Tsitsipas and Medvedev will meet for the first time in nearly a year. Medvedev leads 9-4 in his head-to-head series against Tsitsipas and won both of their matches in 2023,in the Rome and Vienna semifinals. Medvedev won his first five matches against Tsitsipas before the Greek player bounced back with a group stage win en route to his Nitto ATP Finals title in 2019.
The match was delayed by rain for two days. Both players saved two break points in the fourth and sixth games of the first set. Tsitsipas broke twice in the seventh and ninth games to close out the opening set 6-3 on his first set point.
The second set went on serve until the sixth game, when Tsitsipas converted his second break point to take a 4-2 lead. Muller broke back, as Tsitsipas was serving to close out the match at 5-3. Tsitsipas bounced back by breaking at love in the final game on his first match point with a running forehand pass.
Tsitsipas clinched his 200th hard court win by defeating Kei Nishikori in his opening match at this tournament. The Greek player saved the first six break points in Shanghai, three against Nishiskori and three against Muller. He fired a total of 21 aces (14 against Nishikori and 7 against Muller).
Ben Shelton beat Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3 6-4 in 1 hour and 7 minutes. Shelton fired 8 aces and 24 winners to set up against world number 1 Jannik Sinner. Shelton beat Sinner 2-6 6-3 7-6 (7-5) in a third set tie-break in last year’s edition of the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
Shelton earned his first break in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead and served out the opening set with a hold at love in the 10th game. The US player broke again in the seventh game to win the second set 6-3.
“I think it’s always a big opportunity, whenever you get to play against one of the best three players in the world. Right now he is world number one and win two Grand Slam titles this year. It will be a great challenge. I have great memories from that match last year. I probably watched the tape a couple of times so far this year, but I am really looking forward to it”, said Shelton.
Grigor Dimitrov beat this year’s Toronto Masters 1000 champion Alexey Popyrin 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to reach the Round of 16 in Shanghai for the third consecutive time.
Popyrin saved a set point in the 12th game of the first set. Dimitrov won the tie-break 7-5 with his only mini-break. Dimitrov broke twice in the first and third games and served out the win on his first match point.
This year’s US Open finalist Taylor Fritz beat Yosuke Watanuki 6-3 6-4. Fritz converted his second break point in the fourth game and served out the first set on his second opportunity. Fritz broke serve in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Watanuke broke straight back in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3. Fritz earned a second break to take a 4-3 lead and served out the win on his first match point.
Tomas Machac beat Aleksander Vukic 6-4 6-2 to line up against seventh seed against Tommy Paul in the fourth round. Paul saved five match point to beat Alexander Tabilo 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 ain 2 hours and 43 minutes on Sunday.
Gael Monfils edged past his compatriot Ugo Humbert 7-6 (9-7) 2-6 6-1 in all-French match-up. Monfils becomes the second oldest player to reach the Shanghai fourth round behind only Roger Federer, who achieved this feat in 2019.
“It’s never easy to play Ugo. He is really aggressive, playing fast off both wings and takes a lot of time from you”, said Monfils.
Humbert was playing his third consecutive match against against a countryman after finishing runner-up to Arthur Fils in the Tokyo final and defeating Artur Cazaux in his opening match in Shanghai.
