Fourth seeds Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray, the next team in line to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November, advanced to the Shanghai Rolex Masters quarter-finals on Thursday by beating Kevin Anderson and Nenad Zimonjic 7-5, 6-2 in 75 minutes. Murray and Soares, currently No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Race To London, will now face sixth seeds and fellow contenders Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.

Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau booked their tickets to London next month for the season finale, which they won in 2015, as a result of defeating Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 3-6, 6-4, 10-6 in 72 minutes. They now meet seventh seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic or wild cards Di Wu and Yibing Wu.

Fifth seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers, currently No. 9 in the battle for a spot in the English capital, edged into the last eight by virtue of beating Marcin Matkowski and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-7 in one hour and 43 minutes. They will next challenge top seeds and Nitto ATP Finals qualifiers Henri Kontinen and John Peers on Friday at the Qi Zhong Stadium in Shanghai.

Santiago Gonzalez and Julio Peralta, runners up at last week’s Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017 (l. to Mclachlan/Uchiyama), knocked out eighth seeds and this year’s Roland Garros champions Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus 6-4, 7-6(5) in 79 minutes. They await the winners of Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez versus Nitto ATP Finals qualifiers and second seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the Shanghai quarter-finals.

Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov further strengthened his bid for a place at the Nitto ATP Finals on Thursday by reaching the Shanghai Rolex Masters quarter-finals at the expense of American Sam Querrey, another contender for next month’s season finale.

Sixth seed Dimitrov recorded his 40th match win of a career-best year (40-16 overall) with a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over No. 10 seed Querrey in 81 minutes at the Qi Zhong Stadium in Shanghai. He will next challenge top seed and 2009 finalist Rafael Nadal or Fabio Fognini of Italy in Friday’s quarter-finals.

Dimitrov is currently at No. 5 in the Emirates ATP Race To London with 3,455 points, and is now 270 points behind fourth-placed Austrian Dominic Thiem (3,725). Querrey remains at No. 11 with 2,525 points. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev have already clinched three of the eight berths at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November.

The 26-year-old Dimitrov broke Querrey in the fourth game of the pair’s third FedEx ATP Head2Head series (3-0), but could not convert three set point opportunities on the American’s serve at 5-3. Querrey took a 2-0 lead in the second set, but was immediately pinned back and there were no further chances to break through to the tie-break.

Dimitrov has won three ATP World Tour titles in 2017 at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp (d. Nishikori), Garanti Koza Sofia Open (d. Goffin) and the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati (d. Kyrgios).

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The Top 4 seeds headline third round action at the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Thursday with  Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Alexander Zverev and Marin Cilic leading the way.

In the opening match on Stadium, No. 10 seed Sam Querrey takes on No. 6 seed Grigor Dimitrov, who has won both previous meetings. If Querrey reaches his first Shanghai quarter-final, he will move past Pablo Carreno Busta for the final position in the Emirates ATP Race to London. 

View FedEx ATP Head2Head matchup for Day 5 of the Shanghai Rolex Masters and vote for who you think will win!
Zverev vs del Potro | Dimitrov vs Querrey | Nadal vs Fognini | Federer vs Dolgopolov

In the next match on, No. 16 seed and 2013 finalist Juan Martin del Potro meets Zverev for the first time. Last week the 20-year-old German became the third player to clinch a spot in the Nitto ATP Finals in London. The 29-year-old Argentine is 3-9 vs. Top 10 opponents this season. Next up is Cilic against Steve Johnson, who is one of three Americans remaining (Isner, Querrey) in the third round for the first time in tournament history (since 2009). Cilic is 3-0 against Johnson.

In the evening session, Nadal comes in with a 13-match winning streak and looks for his 10th win over Fabio Fognini. Nadal, who reached the Shanghai final in 2009, is 9-3 lifetime against the Italian, winning the last four meetings. In the final match, Federer looks to remain unbeaten (4-0) against qualifier Alexandr Dolgopolov, who has never won a set (0-9) against the Swiss. 

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Viktor Troicki struck again at the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Wednesday. The Serbian earned the biggest win of his season by knocking off Nitto ATP Finals hopeful Dominic Thiem 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5) to advance to the third round of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in China.

Troicki had been 0-4 against Top 10 players this season. But the Serbian earned another chance at the game’s best by beating #NextGenATP wild card Denis Shapovalov in the Shanghai first round, and he recovered from an early hiccup in the third-set tie-break against Thiem to notch the win.

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Troicki led 5/2 in the tie-break and had the match on his racquet. But the 31 year old lost the first point and double faulted at 5/3, handing it back to Thiem at 5/4. The Belgrade native rebounded, though, smashing a backhand up the line on his first match point.

It’s the second Top 10 win in Shanghai for Troicki in as many years. Last year, he beat Rafael Nadal in the second round in Shanghai. He went on to fall to eventual finalist Roberto Bautista Agut in the Round of 16.

Troicki is 1-10 during Round of 16 matches at Masters 1000 events. He’ll try to improve that mark when he faces American John Isner, who beat #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(2), 7-6(9). Isner was actually out-aced in the match (14 to 16), but saved all five of his break points to advance to the Shanghai third round.

London Doubles Hopeful Advances In Shanghai

Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram moved a step closer to qualifying for their second consecutive Nitto ATP Finals in London. Klaasen/Ram escaped a tight second-round match in Shanghai 6-4, 7-6(4) against Marcelo Demoliner and Fabio Fognini to move into the quarter-finals.

Klaasen/Ram now have 2,975 points in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, good enough for eighth place in the standings. The top eight teams qualify for the prestigious season-ending tournament, to be held 12-19 November at The O2 in London.

Top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers advanced by walkover against Nick Kyrgios and Lucas Pouille because Kyrgios was suffering from a viral illness.