Top-ranked Jannik Sinner reached his fifth ATP Masters semifinal of the season by defeating fifth-ranked Daniil Medvedev in straight sets at the Shanghai Masters on Thursday.
Sinner had a strong start and faced only one break point in his 6-1, 6-4 victory over the Russian, who required shoulder treatment from the physio during the second set.
“Obviously I’m very happy with how I handled today and this match,” Sinner said. “It felt like he had a bit of shoulder pain and couldn’t hit his forehand as well as he wished to. Hopefully he can recover as fast as possible, but from my side it was a great match, a great battle, and let’s see what I can do now in the semifinals.”
With this win, the two-time major champion has tied his head-to-head record against Medvedev at 7-7, having won seven of their last eight encounters.
This victory puts Sinner into his first semifinal in Shanghai, where he will face either second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, in a rematch of their exciting match from the China Open last week, or Tomas Machac, who will play later Thursday.
Coco Gauff moved on to the quarterfinals of the Wuhan Open by defeating 17th-ranked Marta Kostyuk with a score of 6-4, 6-1 in just over an hour.
The fourth-ranked Gauff has now won eight matches in a row on the WTA Tour’s Asian circuit, following her victory at the China Open last week, which brought her back into the top five in the rankings.
Gauff hit two aces and broke the Ukrainian’s serve five times, losing her own serve just once, as she dominated the match and improved her head-to-head record against Kostyuk to 3-1.
Next, Gauff will face No. 45-ranked Magda Linette, who continued her strong performance by defeating eighth-seeded Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-3.
“Yeah, so she’s a tough opponent,” Gauff said about Linette. “We haven’t played since (the U.S. Open in 2021). I really don’t know what to expect. But just from watching her play, she’s been playing a great couple of matches here in Wuhan.
“I expect it to be a tough match. She’s not an easy opponent to play.”
Gauff will be the only American left in the tournament after third-ranked Jessica Pegula and tour newcomer Hailey Baptiste both lost.
Pegula, the U.S. Open finalist, faced a tough match against 51st-ranked Wang Xinyu of China, who was strong on serve and won 6-3, 7-5 to reach her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal.
Wang had previously beaten Pegula in three sets at Wimbledon earlier this year and started this match strong by breaking Pegula twice in the first set.
After her first win over a top 10 player in the previous round, Baptiste was defeated 6-1, 6-1 by Ekaterina Alexandrova.
