It was Alcaraz who appeared on court for the first time, three days after winning the ATP 500 tournament in Beijing against Sinner. The No.3 seed took just 1 hour 16 minutes to eliminate world number 51 Shang Juncheng, 6-2, 6-2, his tenth win in a row.
“I’ve been playing good tennis lately and I’m trying to improve,” Alcaraz said. “I had time to practice before the game, and to be able to start like this is something that makes me proud,” he added. In the next round, the Spanish prodigy will face another local player, Yibing Wu (24 years old), a 54-year-old former in the world who dropped to 560 after almost an empty season.
See you in the semi-finals
In getting up, Jannik Sinner was not slow at all, taking only one minute, or 1h17, to beat Taro Daniel (93rd in the world), 6-1, 6-4. And he said that he is “very comfortable on the court”. “This job is very important to me,” stressed the 23-year-old Italian, who is still on a drug ban after an appeal from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The world No.1 will meet a major player on the third tour in the person of Martin Etcheverry, 37th in the ATP.
The Argentine, however, coming off a big match against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp, won 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 7-5 in 3h43 minutes, the longest in the tournament’s history. Being in the same part of the table, Sinful and Alcaraz this time can be found in the semi-final, German Alexander Zverev, number 2, having his part with Serbian Novak Djokovic (N.4) on his side. the road.
The winner of the only Olympic competition this year, the symbolic but limited harvest of this ogre, Djokovic’s goal in Shanghai is to win the 100th tournament. In the duel of the ages against the 20-year-old American Alex Michelsen, advancing to 43rd place, Djoko was in trouble even after coming out of two groups.
Trailing 3-0, the 37-year-old Serb rallied to take a commanding lead in the first set to win in the break. In the second set, he took Michelsen to lead 3-1, but was broken, the American came back to 4-3. Once again, the Serbians had to wait for a break. He gave the crowd the point of the game when, pinned after a shot, he curled a backhand pass with his back to the net. He saved two points before completing his third point with a career win. His unforced errors and his lack of composure had no effect, except for one match that lasted 1h55. “Djoko” will face Italian Flavio Cobolli or Swiss Stan Wawrinka in the next round.