Top seed Jannik Sinner dropped only five games during his quarter-final clash against Daniil Medvedev at the Shanghai Masters on Thursday.
The world No.1 eased through the opening set before facing some tougher resistance during his 6-1, 6-4, win. Sinner dictated proceedings with the help of 27 winners against only 10 unforced errors against his opponent who wasn’t in his best form. Medvedev was troubled by a right shoulder injury and took two medical timeouts for treatment. He was also bothered by the issue during his previous match against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“I’m very happy with how I handled today,” said Sinner.
“I felt like he (Medvedev) had a bit of shoulder pain. He couldn’t hit the forehand as well as he liked to. Hopefully, he can recover as fast as possible.
“But from my side, it was, was a great match and a great battle.”
Sinner is only the second Italian man to reach the last four in Shanghai after Matteo Berrettini who did so in 2019. He has won 63 matches so far this season, claiming six ATP titles with two of them being at Grand Slam tournaments.
As for Masters 1000 events, the 23-year-old has now reached the semi-final stage on 10 occasions. An achievement he never predicted when growing up.
“You cannot plan when you’re young. You never know what’s going to happen in your career.” He said.
“We (Sinner’s team) just try to improve daily. Obviously, I’m very happy to be to be in this position. It’s always a big, big step forward. It’s it’s a huge accomplishment for my side.
“We try to keep going. We try to improve. And then we see what, what I can do.”
Sinner could face Carlos Alcaraz in his next match in what will be a repeat of last week’s China Open final which he lost in a final set tiebreak. Alcaraz will play Tomas Machac later on today in his quarter-final match.
