“Feeling the ball more than the American swing” – Alcaraz takes revenge on Monfils in Shanghai

Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the No 3 seed, moved into the last eight of the Shanghai Masters by beating Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-4, 7-5 at the Qi Zhong Tennis Center on Wednesday.

Alcaraz and Monfils fought for an hour, 28 minutes, hitting 22 winners each. The Frenchman smashes 10 aces, double as many as his opponent did, but the four-time Grand Slam champion crossed the finish line with two break-point conversions.

This was a revenge win for Alcaraz on Monfils, who surprisingly prevailed (4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 ) in their last meeting in Cincinnati during the North American hard court swing. The Spaniard now leads the head-to-head 3-1.

“The main thing I tried is to stay calm,” the 21-year-old said after the win. “Just to control my emotions. Waited for my chances. I had some opportunities that I could break his serve in the 2nd set but I didn’t make it. In those times I tried to stay calm and think that I’m gonna have more chances. I tried to stay as calm as I could during the match. That helped me a lot to show my best tennis during the whole match.

I’m feeling the ball really well, Feeling it much more than I was in the American swing. I’m just happy to do it and hopefully I’ll keep going.”

Carlos Alcaraz

Alcaraz, ranked No 2, will face the winner of the match between American Tommy Paul, the No 11 seed, and No 30 seed Tomas Machac next.

The 21-year-old Spaniard won against Chinese Juncheng Shang (6-2, 6-2) and Chinese wildcard Yibing Wu (7-6 (5), 6-3) earlier in the tournament.

In the previous rounds of the Shanghai tournament, Monfils, ranked No 46, defeated Bosnian Damir Dzumhur (6-4, 6-3), Argentinian Sebastian Baez, the No 22 seed (6-3, 4-6, 6-4) and No 16 seed Ugo Humbert (7-6 (7), 2-6, 6-1).

Shanghai Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Qi Zhong Tennis Center, hard, USD 8.995.555, most recent results first):

• David Goffin vs. Alexander Zverev
• Taylor Fritz vs. Holger Rune
• Roman Safiullin vs. Novak Djokovic
• Jakub Mensik vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Tommy Paul vs. Tomas Machac
• Daniil Medvedev (5) beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (10): 7-6 (3), 6-3
• Jannik Sinner (1) beat Ben Shelton (14): 6-4, 7-6 (1)

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