No. 7 seed Alex de Minaur reached a milestone and advanced to the Rolex Shanghai Masters quarterfinals with a 7-5, 6-2 win Wednesday against Portugal’s Nuno Borges.
The Australian improved to 50-18 and joined Carlos Alcaraz (67) and Taylor Fritz (50) as the only men to hit the 50-win mark this season. He leads the ATP Tour with 37 victories on hard courts.
With 19 winners against just 10 unforced errors, de Minaur finished his first meeting with Borges in one hour and 47 minutes. He saved all three break points while collecting service breaks in the 11th game of the first set and the first and third games of the second set.
“For me it just shows consistency and that is what I am most proud of,” said de Minaur, whose previous high was 47 wins last season. “Showing up every single week and it is an amazing number. I am hoping for many more to finish off the year and not stay at 50. It has been a successful trip to Asia so far. I told myself at the start of the week that it was all going to be a big mental effort to go out there and compete. I am happy to be in the quarter-finals and give myself another opportunity.”
Up next for de Minaur is 16th-seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev, who held off American teenager Learner Tien 7-6 (6), 6-7 (1), 6-4 in two hours and 53 minutes.
No. 12 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 win against No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in just 85 minutes. He became the first Canadian to reach the quarterfinals in Shanghai.
“I felt like I was playing fast, but I was seeing the game slow. It’s weird when you get these kinds of nights,” Auger-Aliassime said.
“I’ve been trying to work my way there obviously for a while now, working on this type of game plan, but to execute it live on a match court at this stage against an opponent like this is a different story to practice. I’m very pleased, because to play like this means things are coming along nicely.”
Auger-Aliassime will face unseeded Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, who reached his maiden Masters 1000 quarterfinal with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) triumph against No. 15-seeded Czech Jiri Lehecka.
Rinderknech, whose cousin Valentin Vacherot of Monaco is also in the final eight, struck nine aces and won 93 percent (41 of 44) of the points on his first serve. He never faced a break point.
–Field Level Media
