Shanghai Masters: Shelton ends Sinner’s winning streak in China to make last eight

American Ben Shelton, the No 19 seed, ended the seven-match winning streak of Jannik Sinner as he edged out the Italian 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) to reach the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters at the Qi Zhong Stadium on Tuesday.

Shelton, ranked No 20, served brilliantly as he snatched the final-set tiebreak 7-5 to knock off Sinner, who won the title so impressively in Beijing last week.

“The atmosphere is crazy,” said Shelton, who was serenaded with “happy birthday” from the Shanghai crowd, one day after he turned 21. “A year and a half ago I was in college, a year ago I was playing Challengers and now here I am playing in Shanghai, it’s pretty crazy.”

The left-hander, who hit 15 aces and saw 38 of his 97 first serves unreturned, will face American Sebastian Korda, the No 26 seed, next.

Shelton turns the match around

World No 4 Sinner began the match in stunning fashion, racing through the first set with the kind of tennis he showed last week in winning the China Open title.

But Shelton found his rhythm on serve as the match progressed. He took the first set thanks to one break and continued to match the Italian in the third. Sinner saved five break points in the first game of the decider while Shelton saved a couple on his own serve as the two men went toe to toe.

The set headed to a seemingly inevitable tiebreak and Shelton raced ahead 4-0. But Sinner recovered superbly to win the next five points only for the American to send down to big serves and on his first match point, he hammered a forehand return which Sinner couldn’t handle, to clinch the win.

“My serve wasn’t working too well in the first set, I felt like he was on top of me. But I really started to find my groove and I ended up having one of my best serving days in the second and third sets.”

The 21-year-old American won against Spaniard Jaume Munar (6-4, 6-4) and edged out Russian Roman Safiullin (3-6, 6-3, 6-4) earlier in the tournament.

In the previous rounds, Sinner, ranked No 4, beat American Marcos Giron (7-6 (7), 6-2) and Argentinian Sebastian Baez, the No 25 seed (3-6, 6-3, 6-2).

Shanghai Masters, other last 16 results (Qi Zhong Stadium, hard, USD 8.800.000, most recent results first):

• Tommy Paul vs. Andrey Rublev
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Ugo Humbert vs. J.J. Wolf
• Nicolas Jarry vs. Diego Schwartzman
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Zhizhen Zhang
• Sebastian Korda beat Francisco Cerundolo (20): 7-5, 7-6 (6)
• Fabian Marozsan beat Casper Ruud (8): 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4