David Goffin of Belgium upset No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-5 at the Rolex Shanghai Masters in China on Wednesday, a day that saw other top seeds advance to the quarterfinals in straight sets.
Despite eight aces, Zverev couldn’t count on his serve when he needed it most. Goffin converted four of 11 break opportunities and was broken just twice, providing the difference in the match that lasted just shy of two hours.
Top seed Jannik Sinner of Italy, third-seeded Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, fourth-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic and Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, the fifth seed, all avoided the upset.
Sinner completed a 6-4, 7-6 (1) victory over Ben Shelton, spoiling the American’s 22nd birthday. Sinner moved to 4-1 against Shelton, with the only loss coming last year in Shanghai.
Shelton provided a stiff test for Sinner, especially given his 95 percent success rate on first serves in the opening set.
“It was very tough. He played only first serves, except one second serve,” Sinner said. “I tried to wait a little bit. Obviously playing against him, even if it’s a second serve, it’s very tough to return.
“But if I look the positive picture, how I ended the match, I tried to stay a bit more aggressive, which I’ve done, and this hopefully can give me confidence for the next round.”
In the next round, Sinner will face Medvedev, who eliminated 10th-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 7-6 (3), 6-3. It wasn’t a vintage performance from Tsitsipas, who had 18 winners against 34 unforced errors.
Alcaraz, however, was in fine form as he won his 12th straight match to reach the quarterfinals, staving off a challenge from Gael Monfils on France in a 6-4, 7-5 win that took 87 minutes.
“The main thing I tried in this match was to stay calm, to control my emotions and wait for my chances,” said Alcaraz, who is 51-9 on the season and seeking his fifth title of 2024. “I had a few opportunities to break his serve at the beginning of the second set [and] I couldn’t take them. In those times, I tried to stay calm and think ‘I am going to have more’.”
His opponent in the quarterfinals will be Czech Tomas Machac, who came from behind to eliminate Tommy Paul, the 11th seed, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Djokovic, for his part, topped Russian Roman Safiullin 6-3, 6-2 in one hour, 13 minutes to reach the quarterfinals in Shanghai for the 10th time. He has won the tournament a record four times and is seeking to join Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer as the only men to win 100 ATP Tour trophies in the Open Era.
Djokovic said he likes the way he is playing.
“Both last night’s match and tonight have been, maybe, some of the best matches I have played in a while, so I am just enjoying myself on the court,” Djokovic said. “When you play well and feel good, there is obviously a lot of joy in striking a tennis ball on the court.”
In other action Wednesday, seventh seed Taylor Fritz defeated 12th seed Holger Rune of Denmark, while Czech Jakub Mensik toppled Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, the ninth seed, in three sets.
–Field Level Media
