Sinner defeated Shelton and Tsitsipas attacked the referee in Shanghai

SHANGHAI (AP) — Jannik Sinner avenged his fourth-round loss to Ben Shelton at last year’s Shanghai Masters with a 6-4, 7-6 (1) victory, ruining the 22-year-old American’s birthday on Wednesday.

Like last year, the match again featured incredible scores and serve dominance, but this time the 23-year-old Italian emerged victorious and improved his record against Shelton to 4-1.

“Happy with how I handled this situation, obviously this is the position I was in last year and where I am now is different so I’m happy to be in the position I’m in.” , said Sinner.

He will play fifth-ranked Daniil Medvedev, who previously beat longtime rival Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 (3), 6-3, in a match that saw the Greek player lunge at chair umpire Fergus Murphy for a time violation and At first I refused to continue playing.

“You’ve never played tennis in your life. “You seem to have no idea about tennis,” Tsitsipas told Murphy.

“If it’s not fair, I’ll have to talk to the boss. “You look like you have no idea what you’re doing,” Tsitsipas continued as the crowd began to slowly applaud.

Second-seeded Carlos Alcaraz, who won the China Open in a thrilling match against Sinner last week, made it 12 wins in a row with a 6-4, 7-5 win over French veteran Gael Monfils to reach the quarter-finals.

The French Open and Wimbledon champion will play Thomas Maschak in the quarterfinals.

Novak Djokovic will continue his quest for his 100th career title later on Wednesday when he faces world No. 61 Roman Safiullin.

In addition, third seed Alexander Zverev will play Belgium’s David Goffin, while seventh seed Taylor Fritz will play Denmark’s Holger Rune.

On the women’s side, second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka maintained her unbeaten record at the Wuhan Open by opening her campaign with a 6-4, 6-4 win over 37th-ranked Katerina Siniakova in her second-round match on Wednesday.

In the third round, the 26-year-old Belarusian will play Kazakh Yulia Putintseva, who ended Paris Olympic silver medalist Donna Vekic’s tournament with a score of 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

“I really missed Wuhan,” Sabalenko said. “I have very good memories of winning the title here twice.”

Sabalenka only needs to reach the quarterfinals in Wuhan to regain first place in the rankings from Iga Swiatek.

Six Americans took part in Wednesday’s second-round matches.

China Open champion Coco Gauff defeated Bulgaria’s Victoria Tomova 6-1, 6-2 in 75 minutes, while Hayley Baptiste defeated world No. 10 Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 7-5 for her first win over a top-ranked player -10. .

Magdalena Frech beat eighth seed Emma Navarro 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in just over two hours, while world No. 11 Daria Kasatkina overcame a mid-match stumble to defeat American Bernarda Peru 6-4, 1 – 6, 6-1.

Amanda Anisimova withdrew from the match against Marta Kostyuk, ranked 17th.

Later on Wednesday, third-seeded Jessica Pegula will play Anastasia Potapova, while the Andreeva sisters, Mirra and Erica, will meet for the first time at a tour-level event.