Carlos Alcaraz avenged his Cincinnati loss to Gael Monfils after beating the Frenchman to reach the quarter finals at the Rolex Shanghai Masters Shanghai for the first time on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old and World no.2 who was a winner last week in Beijing, recorded his 12th consecutive wins on the spin defeating the French veteran 6-4, 7-5 in under three hours.
Despites entering the encounter under pressure, having in mind his Cincinnati loss, Alcaraz showed great character in winning the match after he struggled to break Gael Monfils’s serve in the second set despite a strong first set display.
“The main thing I tried is to stay calm. 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”, Alcaraz highlighted his struggles enroute to his round of 16 victory.
With the win, Alcaraz, who is a 4-time Grand Slam champion has now progressed to his 10th quarter final match of this season. He next faces Czechia native Tomas Machac who came back and defeated Tommy Paul 6-3,4-6,3-6 in the round of 16.
According to OptaAce, Since the format’s inception in 1990, Carlos Alcaraz (76.5%, 62-19) only trails three players for win% at ATP Masters 1000 events – Novak Djokovic (82.02%), Rafael Nadal (82.00%) and Roger Federer (77.9%).
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