Carlos Alcaraz settled in quickly to his maiden Rolex Shanghai Masters campaign on Saturday, when the top seed overcame a spirited Gregoire Barrere 6-2, 7-5 at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

Alcaraz stayed the more consistent at key moments to claim a one-hour, 42-minute triumph against the World No. 73. He made a lightning-fast start inside Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, where he raced to a 4-0 lead early and ultimately saved six of seven break points he faced to improve to 15-0 in opening matches this season. The Spaniard was delighted to bounce back quickly from his defeat to Jannik Sinner in the Beijing semi-finals just four days ago.

“I had just one practice here in Shanghai and then the match,” reflected the Spaniard. “I think he was more used to these conditions. He had more practice, a match in the bag, so it was really difficult to adapt my game in a new city, new conditions, but I think I did pretty well.

“I played really focused, I tried to take lessons from the last match in Beijing and tried to be a better player. I tried to not make the mistakes I did in Beijing and I think today I did pretty well.”

Barrere competed well in his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Alcaraz, particularly from the baseline where he regularly matched Alcaraz’s power and precision with his groundstrokes. He struggled with his serve throughout the match, though, making just 53 per cent (42/79) of first deliveries. That tally undermined the Frenchman’s bid for a first Top 10 win as Alcaraz maintained constant pressure in return games.

Alcaraz appeared to be marching to victory when he broke for 4-3 in the second set, but Barrere produced an immediate burst of clean hitting to clinch his first break of the match in the next game. He continued to struggle against the Spaniard’s razor-sharp returning, however, and Alcaraz claimed his second break of the set in the 11th game before sealing victory by pulling off a remarkable behind-the-back shot on match point.

Now 62-8 for the season, Alcaraz will take on 30th seed Daniel Evans or qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin in the third round as he chases his third Masters 1000 crown of the year. The Spaniard is also attempting to leapfrog Novak Djokovic into first place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin by reaching the final in Shanghai.

Alcaraz’s rival Sinner also kick-started his Shanghai campaign with a straight-sets win. The Italian defeated Marcos Giron 7-6(7), 6-2 for his sixth consecutive win, delivering a solid display to back up winning his third ATP Tour title of the season in Beiing.

The victory secured Sinner’s spot at the 2023 Nitto ATP Finals. The 22-year-old competed at the prestigious season finale in Turin as an alternate two years ago, but this marks the first time he has qualified directly.

It was not all plain sailing against Giron for Sinner, who trailed 3/6 in the first-set tie-break and went on to save four set points, including one with a net cord at 5/6, before prevailing. He took command in the second set as his superior power overwhelmed Giron, and Sinner finished with 25 winners to just 15 from his American opponent.

“I’m very happy. The first-round matches are never easy,” said Sinner. “I tried somehow to raise my level. I knew before the match that especially the first set was going to be tough and I started off not in the best possible way. I just tried to stay there, especially mentally. I got lucky when he had set point, so happy about the ending.

“If I see the positive, at the end of the match I played a little bit better so hopefully it gives me confidence for the next round.”

Sinner’s recent focus on improving his net game, so evident during his Beijing title run, was again on display against Giron. The Italian won 90 per cent (19/21) of points when he moved forward, according to the INSIGHTS ‘Battles At Net’ analysis for the match.

Picking up where he left off 🔥🎾@janniksin dominating his #Battlesatnet & giving his #ConversionScore a boost in his win over Giron #TennisInsights | @atptour | @SH_RolexMasters pic.twitter.com/mvILdXfrV1

— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) October 7, 2023

Next up for Sinner in Shanghai is a third-round clash with 25th seed Sebastian Baez. It will be a maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash between the two.

Jannik Sinner is the fourth player to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, joining Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev at the season finale, which will be played in Turin from 12-19 November.

The Italian earned his place after defeating Marcos Giron in the second round of the Rolex Shanghai Masters. He has qualified for the year-end championships for the first time after competing at the Pala Alpitour as an alternate in 2021 when countryman Matteo Berrettini withdrew due to injury.

Sinner has enjoyed a season of breakthroughs in 2023. The Italian advanced to his first major semi-final at Wimbledon and lifted his maiden ATP Masters 1000 trophy in Toronto.

Also a champion this year in Beijing and Montpellier, Sinner made several deep runs throughout the season. He reached the final at the Masters 1000 event in Miami, where he upset Carlos Alcaraz in a semi-final widely viewed as one of the best matches of the year. Sinner also made the final in Rotterdam and reached the semi-finals at Indian Wells and Monte-Carlo.

The 22-year-old is in top form as evidenced by his performance in Beijing, where he defeated Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev in back-to-back straight-sets matches to claim the trophy. 

When Sinner competed as an alternate in Turin two years ago, he showed comfort on the big stage. The Italian defeated Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets before pushing Daniil Medvedev to a final-set tie-break.

Daniil Medvedev picked up where he left off Saturday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

Stepping onto the Qizhong Tennis Center’s Stadium Court for the first time since his 2019 title run, Medvedev ground down Cristian Garin for a 6-3, 6-3 win to kick-start his campaign at the ATP Masters 1000 event. A display packed with trademark defensive nous and a refusal to miss proved too much for Garin as the second seed comfortably advanced having converted five of nine break points he earned.

.@DaniilMedwed will not be denied 🙅‍♂️#RolexShanghaiMasters | @SH_RolexMasters pic.twitter.com/vvkSBEL07b

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 7, 2023

With his 92-minute victory, Medvedev became the second player to notch 60 tour-level wins this season after Carlos Alcaraz. It is the second time he has achieved the feat in his career, after he finished the 2021 season with 63 wins. The 27-year-old Medvedev also owns a Tour-leading 43 victories on hard courts this season.

“I hope so, you never know,” said Medvedev, when asked if he was confident of passing his record of 63 wins. “At this moment and with the form I’m in, I would confidently say I will do it, but never say things too early in tennis.

“I’m going to try my best, I’m going to try to play more good matches in the tournament that I have left this season. It’s a good result so far, so I want to try to do better.”

Medvedev now holds a 7-2 record in Shanghai, where he lifted the second of his six Masters 1000 crowns by beating Alexander Zverev in the 2019 championship match, and is chasing his third title at that level this year having already triumphed in Miami and Rome. He will next look to avenge his Australian Open defeat to Sebastian Korda when he takes on the American in the third round in China.

One of the newest INSIGHTS metrics, Shot Variety, provides an objective measure for how much a player mixes up their tactics and shot selection during match play.

Expressed as a percentage of all shots hit, Shot Variety is calculated by comparing the use of “core” shots — topspin groundstrokes hit through the opponent’s baseline — with the use of variation. This variation can include deep or short slices, drop shots, topspin angles and shots at net.

The metric provides a useful tool to help demonstrate how a player’s tactics compare to the rest of the ATP Tour. When viewed for a particular match, Shot Variety can also show how a player’s shot selection compares to his own benchmarks from previous matches.

Out of players inside the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Daniel Evans and Alexander Bublik are the co-leaders in Shot Variety over the past 52 weeks, with both players hitting roughly 47 per cent of their shots with variation. For Evans, his 46.8 per cent score breaks down as follows: slices (25.1%), short slices (7.1%), drop shots (1.2%), angles (2.1%), net shots (11.3%).

pic.twitter.com/KcQmngLRaC

— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) September 17, 2023

The ATP Tour average for Shot Variety is 21 per cent. That 21 per cent average is made up of slices (6%), short slices (3%), drop shots (2%), angles (2%) and net shots (8%).

Taylor Fritz, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev have the lowest Shot Variety among the Top 20, with all three players scoring just over 10 per cent. Ben Shelton is near the top at about 30 percent, with Lorenzo Musetti and Grigor Dimitrov owning the highest percentages of the Top 20, both over 30 per cent.

Former World No. 99 Pedro Sousa put a bow on his professional career Thursday at the Del Monte Lisboa Belém Open in Portugal.

The host site of the ATP Challenger Tour 75 event, the Club Internacional de Foot-Ball is Sousa’s home club, making the 35-year-old’s final tournament a memorable goodbye.

“The hardest part is long gone, it was when I had to make the decision. It seemed like this day would never come, but suddenly it was here,” Sousa said in Portuguese at a press conference in Lisbon. “Before the match I was okay, but then that pressure came. Playing here is always special. I had friends, family and club members that I see daily, which gave me extra strength to perform well.”

Sousa, who turned pro in 2007, collected eight ATP Challenger Tour titles and is one of four Portuguese men to crack the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in the past decade.

After earning his 201st career Challenger-match victory this week in Lisbon, where his father ‘Manecas’ works as the tournament director, Sousa clashed against countryman and former World No. 28 Joao Sousa, who reached the highest ranking in Portuguese tennis history in 2016.

In front of a full crowd, Pedro soaked in the final moments of his career.

“I feel relief, finally,” Sousa said, while cracking a laugh. “It is what it is. I was more or less prepared. I also had some time to prepare. It was special because it happened in my club like I wanted, during a national holiday in front of a full stadium against the best Portuguese player ever.”

Joao Sousa (left) embraces Pedro Sousa, who was playing his final match Thursday in Lisbon.” />
^{Joao Sousa (left) embraces Pedro Sousa, who was playing his final match Thursday in Lisbon. Credit: FPT/Sara Falcao}
Sousa’s most memorable moment from his career was representing his home country in the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. The year prior, the Lisbon native enjoyed a surprise runner-up finish as a lucky loser at the ATP 250 event in Buenos Aires. All eight of his Challenger titles came on clay courts, with two triumphs on home soil. When Sousa reflected on his career, one match stuck out.

“The best match ever has to be the final against [Jan-Lennard] Struff in the [2018] Pullach [Germany] Challenger,” Sousa said. “Winning 6-3, 6-1 in the final of a Challenger 125 was even better than when I beat him the year before [in Davis Cup], because in that one I had to suffer a bit in the end.

“I’m happy and proud of my career and have no regrets. Most people don’t know the struggles we go through, it’s a very tough career. I’ve made some mistakes of course, but I’m happy with my achievements.”

Unseeded Austrians Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler defeated French singles stars Ugo Humbert and Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 6-2 to make a winning start to their Rolex Shanghai Masters campaign on Friday.

Erler/Miedler were a perfect six-for-six on break chances in the 57-minute match, while saving two of the four break points against them. The Austrians won more than 50 per cent of their return points against both first and second serve.

Erler/Miedler are in 15th place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings but could make up significant ground on the top eight with a deep run in Shanghai.

Fifth-seeded Argentines Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni — comfortably inside the top eight at fourth place in their quest to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin — also notched an opening win on Friday with a 6-4,  6-4 result against Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski.

Seventh seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos scored a 7-6(5), 7-6(3) win against Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen, with both teams breaking twice in the match. The victorious Spanish-Argentine duo is in sixth place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings.

Rounding out Friday’s doubles action in Shanghai, wild cards Gonzalo Escobar and Aleksandr Nedovyesov beat Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara 6-4, 6-4.

The Rolex Shanghai Masters celebrated 25 years of professional tennis in the Chinese city on Friday.

The Shanghai event has operated as an ATP Masters 1000 since 2009, and was awarded ATP Masters 1000 Tournament of the Year, as voted by players, in each of its first five years with that status. The Nitto ATP Finals, then known as the Tennis Masters Cup, was also held in Shanghai in 2002 and from 2005-08.

The lone Masters 1000 in Asia, Shanghai regularly attracts the biggest names on the ATP Tour, with stars like Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic all former champions at the state-of-the-art Qi Zhong Tennis Center.

Special guests at Friday’s ceremony included ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi; Charles Humphrey Smith, an ATP Tournament Advisory Council member and the Rolex Shanghai Masters managing director; and Rolex Shanghai Masters tournament director Michael Luevano.

Mr. Wang Ping, Deputy Secretary of Municipal People’s Government, accepted a special crystal trophy to mark the 25-year celebration. 

“China is a very big market and tennis is a global sport,” Gaudenzi said during the ceremony. “Our presence here in China is really important for us because we want tennis to become a popular sport in the entire world.”

The growth of tennis in Shanghai has coincided with the rise of Chinese stars at the professional level. In addition to two-time Grand Slam champion Li Na on the women’s side, young stars like Wu Yibing, Zhang Zhizhen and Shang Juncheng are emerging now on the ATP Tour.

Zhang Zhizhen added another historic achievement to his groundbreaking year on the ATP Tour on Friday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

The World No. 60 defeated Tomas Martin Etcheverry 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to become the first home favourite to reach the third round in the history of the ATP Masters 1000 event. Zhang edged the 28th-seeded Argentine in a gripping two-hour, 28-minute encounter played out amid a raucous atmosphere inside the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena.

“First set I was down, and he had a break,” said Zhang after the match. “I told myself, second set I still have a chance. I just tried to hold my service games and see if I could break him. First set my return was not working well, so I changed my position a bit and I’m happy to win the match of course.”

History made 👏 👏

From a set down Zhang defeats Etcheverry to become the first Chinese man to reach the third round at the Shanghai Masters!@SH_RolexMasters | #RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/hPQ4jP624W

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 6, 2023

Zhang clinched a crucial break in the ninth game of the deciding set and then held his nerve to convert his third match point in a final game featuring a series of bruising baseline exchanges. He outhit Etcheverry by 32 winners to 30 to seal his eighth Top 50 win of the season.

Zhang became the first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finalist from China in May in Madrid and in July rose to No. 52 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, the highest position ever held by anyone from the East Asian country. He beat Casper Ruud at the US Open to become the first Chinese man to beat a Top 5 opponent and is now the first player from his country to win back-to-back matches in 12 editions of the Shanghai event.

“It’s a first-time experience for me,” said Zhang, a hugely popular figure in his homeland. “Everything is new. I just try to take it, these are not bad things [that are happening]. So why not just take it [as it goes] and enjoy it?”

Zhang will take on American Brandon Nakashima on Sunday as he bids to reach the last 16 of a Masters 1000 tournament for the second time.

Buyunchaokete’s first-round win against Miomir Kecmanovic had ensured there were two Chinese players in the Shanghai second round for the first time. That is where the 21-year-old’s run ended, however, as Sebastian Korda prevailed 6-1, 6-4 to immediately back up his run to the Astana title match. The 26th seed will next take on defending champion Daniil Medvedev or Cristian Garin.

Roman Safiullin lit up the Shanghai night, crushing 32 winners, to upset ninth seed Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-1. Safiullin took the ball early and often worked his way forward, winning 18 of 22 net points to avenge last month’s Chengdu final loss to the German.

Following the 26-year-old’s second career Top 10 victory, Safiullin is up eight spots to No. 42 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings. Safiullin, who ousted Andy Murray in the Shanghai first round, will next meet 19th seed Ben Shelton.

Marton Fucsovics held firm to upset Felix Auger-Aliassime win a hard-hitting contest on Show Court 3. The Hungarian completed a 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3 triumph to reach the third round for the first time on his second main-draw appearance in Shanghai, where he will next face Francisco Cerundolo. The Argentine held his nerve for a 7-6(4), 7-6(5) triumph against Mackenzie McDonald.

The American Shelton and Sebastian Baez also made winning starts to their Shanghai campaigns. Shelton downed Jaume Munar 6-4, 6-4 while Baez ended Australian qualifier Dane Sweeny’s run with a 6-2, 6-4 win that booked the Argentine a clash with Beijing champion Jannik Sinner or Marcos Giron.