Sinner avenges Shanghai defeat to Shelton

Jannik Sinner has avenged his defeat to Ben Shelton in the fourth round of last year’s Shanghai Masters with a 6-4 7-6 (7-1) win to spoil the 22-year-old American’s birthday.

Like last year, the duel again featured some incredible shot-making and serving dominance but this time the 23-year-old Italian prevailed to improve his record against Shelton to 4-1.

“I think it was a very tough match also today,” Sinner said.

“He had chances in the first, chances in the second. If I don’t play well these points, you know, he wins in two sets, because he was serving very, very well.

“Happy how I handled this situation, it’s obviously a position where I have been last year, and where I am right now, it’s different, so I’m happy to be in the position where I am.”

Sinner’s break in the ninth game was all that separated the duo in the opening set. Both players then dominated on their own serve through the second before the Italian sped away in the tiebreak and won the last seven points of the match.

Sinner is now through to his seventh ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final of the year and will play fifth-ranked Daniil Medvedev, who earlier beat long-time rival Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.

It was the 14th time the Russian former US Open champion and 12th-ranked Greek had met, but first in nearly a year. With Wednesday’s win, Medvedev extended his head-to-head series lead to 10-4.

Second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, who won the China Open in a thriller against Sinner last week, made it 12 consecutive wins with a testing 6-4 7-5 victory over French veteran Gael Monfils to advance to the quarters.

Alcaraz needed all his shot-making abilities to outmanoeuvre the 38-year-old Monfils, with the 21-year-old Spaniard making 22 winners and taking a break in each set to clinch the match in 87 minutes.

“The main thing I tried in this match was to stay calm, to control my emotions and wait for my chances,” Alcaraz said.

The French Open and Wimbledon champion will play Tomas Machac in the last eight after the Czech defeated Tommy Paul of the US, 3-6 6-4 6-3.

Later on Wednesday, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic continues his bid for a 100th career title as he faces 61st-ranked Roman Safiullin of Russia.

Also, third-ranked German Alexander Zverev plays David Goffin of Belgium and seventh-ranked American Taylor Fritz plays Holger Rune of Denmark.