Shanghai Masters top seed Carlos Alcaraz fought through what he called “one of the toughest matches this year” to make the tournament’s final 16 on Monday, beating Britain’s Daniel Evans 7-6 (7/1), 6-4.
Alcaraz is the favourite to take the title in the absence of world number one Novak Djokovic, and is hoping to use his time in China to close the gap on the Serbian at the top of the ATP rankings.
In a ferociously physical match that lasted almost two-and-a-half hours, the 33rd-ranked Evans gave as good as he got against the Spaniard, leading by three games in the first set.
But over the course of prolonged and sometimes scrappy rallies that left spectators gasping and groaning, the world number two gradually assumed control, comprehensively winning the first-set tiebreaker.
“That was probably one of the toughest matches I’ve played this year,” said the 20-year-old Alcaraz after the match.
“I tried to stay all the time there, waiting for my opportunities. I had to stay strong mentally, stay strong physically… I’m really happy with the level that I played.”
Alcaraz will next play Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who earlier overcame a torrential downpour and a well-matched opponent in Russian Karen Khachanov to win 7-6 (8/6), 6-4.
The match had to be suspended at 6-6 in the first set after the heavens opened and doused centre court.
Once the Qizhong Tennis Centre roof had been closed and a host of volunteers had towelled and blowdried the court, world number 19 Dimitrov inched a tight tiebreaker and followed that by taking the second set.
– Pool shrinking –
Alcaraz’s pool of main rivals got smaller on Sunday when defending champion Daniil Medvedev suffered a shock defeat at the hands of 26th-ranked American Sebastian Korda.
But Jannik Sinner, who knocked Alcaraz out of the China Open semi-finals in Beijing last week, has already clinched his fourth-place spot.
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