Shanghai Masters: Title contenders survive scares

Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev and Tommy Paul all survived scares at the Shanghai Masters on Sunday, coming back from a set down in the round of 32 to keep their title hopes alive.

Medvedev featured first on a rain-affected day at the season’s penultimate Masters 1000 event, with the Russian taking on No.29 seed Matteo Arnaldi.

The Italian got off to a strong start taking the first set 7-5, before Medvedev rallied to win the next two 6-4, 6-4.

Following his victory, the No.5 seed gave a rare insight into his mentality on court, explaining why he got testy with the chair umpire at times across the match:

“I tried many different things in my career,” he explained.

“Trying to stay calm, trying to be, sometimes, not try, but sometimes I go very crazy.

“And I think, you know, what works is whatever you feel like will work at this moment.”

Next up was Sinner, who was a heavy favourite across all tennis bookmakers to defeat Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

However, the Argentine came out playing some of his best tennis all season, handing Sinner just his second loss in tiebreaks from his last 20 played, in the first set.

The world No.1 did what he has done all year and dug deep, maintaining his impeccable record against players outside the top 20 by defeating Etcheverry 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2.

Carlos Alcaraz then took on China’s Yibing Wu, and while he was the only player not to drop a set on Sunday, the Spaniard was still given a vigourous challenge by the local wildcard.

“He didn’t let me to play as aggressive as I wanted, or as aggressive that I’m used to playing the last couple of weeks,” explained Alcaraz after he prevailed 7-6 (5), 6-3.

“He hit it stronger than me, deeper than me.

“I had to stay there, I had to put myself into the rally as much longer as I could.

“I have to give credit to him as well, because he played a really solid match.

“Just one break, the first serve was so close as well, he could win that first set, so just happy to be able to win in the tiebreak.”

Rounding out the day’s action in Shanghai was the most spectacular of all the comebacks, with Paul saving an incredible five match points to defeat Alejandro Tabilo 6-7 (2), 7-6 (2), 6-2 in two hours, 43 minutes.

The No.11 seed looked dead and buried when Tabilo raced out to a 5-1 lead in the second set, but somehow managed to fend off the Chilean and win five straight games to force a tiebreaker before running away with the third set.

While rain means that there is a significant backlog of matches to be played over the coming days, Alcaraz is a firm favourite to win his second Asian title in a row.

The world No.2 is currently a +140 favourite at Bovada, ahead of Sinner (+333), Novak Djokovic (+333) and Alexander Zverev (+700).

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