Italy’s Matteo Berrettini slid into the eighth and final Nitto ATP Finals qualification spot on Friday with a gritty 7-6(8), 6-4 victory against No. 5 Dominic Thiem. The win marks Berrettini’s second Top 5 win (Zverev, Rome 2019) and his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final.

The 23-year-old Italian saved all three break points and improved to 33-9 since suffering a five-match losing streak on 14 April. Berrettini, the winner of two ATP Tour titles this season (Budapest, Gstaad), will next meet Germany’s Alexander Zverev, who beat two-time champion Roger Federer 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-3 to make his first Masters 1000 semi-final since 2018 Shanghai.

Look at the man go ?

Super speed from Matteo Berrettini!

?: @TennisTV | #RolexShMasters pic.twitter.com/32yjNPMYHb

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 11, 2019

Berrettini added 180 points to his ATP Race To London tally (2,525), 40 points ahead of ninth-placed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, whom the Italian beat in the Shanghai third round.

Berrettini could knock out another London rival in his semi-final. Zverev, the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals champion, is currently in seventh place in the Race, with 2,615 points.

Thiem beat Berrettini in June en route to his second Roland Garros final. But on the quick Shanghai courts, Berrettini’s power, particularly his mammoth forehand, was too much to contend with for Thiem, who had won his past seven consecutive matches, dating back to his China Open title on Sunday in Beijing.

Berretini converted his fourth set point in the 18-point tie-break and broke Thiem in the seventh game of the second set before serving it out.

Alexander Zverev earned his first Top 10 win of the season on Friday, defeating Roger Federer in a three-set thriller to reach the semi-finals of the Rolex Shanghai Masters. The 22-year-old showed how much the victory meant to him after clinching the match, immediately turning around to his camp to let out a massive roar.

“It’s my [expletive] time now!”

For one, it’s his time to make a big move in the ATP Race To London. Zverev, the reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion, is now in pole position to book his spot at the season finale for the third consecutive year. After Stefanos Tsitsipas qualified on Friday, there are only two spots remaining, and Zverev is in seventh place in the Race.

“Obviously it was an important match. The head-to-head [against Federer] is obviously a great thing to have, but more importantly for me is it was a match to maybe turn my year around a little bit, and the Race to London is also very important,” Zverev said. “So I’m happy to be in the semi-finals now and give myself the best chance to win maybe two more matches here.”

It’s not that long ago that Zverev’s prospects of qualifying for London appeared in question. The German arrived in Montreal in August in 10th place in the Race.

But Zverev never panicked, even if he did not maintain the momentum of his victory from last year at The O2. This week in Shanghai, Zverev is into the semi-finals of an ATP Masters 1000 event or Grand Slam for the first time this year.

“You can always see things with the glass half empty or half full,” Zverev said in Montreal. ”It has not been the best year for me, but I am still… competing for London and the biggest tournaments in the world. For me, the year can only get better.”

Zverev (2,615 points) knows his spot is nowhere near booked though, leading eighth-placed Berrettini (2,525) by just 90 points and ninth-placed Roberto Bautista Agut (2,485) by 130 points.

However, defeating Federer to take a 4-3 lead in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series gives the German plenty of confidence heading into a crucial showdown against Berrettini in Saturday’s semi-finals, in which he can give himself more cushion in the Race.

“It helps a lot. I mean, obviously the five match points I had in the second set, them going away and still knowing that I can win in three sets is very important, especially against someone like Roger, because normally he doesn’t let go of these kinds of matches,” Zverev said. “It was great and very important for me… going into the next few tournaments and going into the next few matches here is also going to be, I think, a big thing for me, knowing that I can win these kinds of matches.”

Perhaps most importantly, Zverev showed signs against Federer that he is getting closer to playing the tennis that helped him to the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals title. And that will be what pushes him back to London.

“[I am] finally starting to play the way I should play, really. I was playing really defensive the whole year round and was not with a lot of confidence,” Zverev said. “Finally maybe starting to play some better tennis and hopefully I can continue this way.”

Alexander Zverev held on, despite losing five match points in the second set, to upset Roger Federer 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-3 and significantly bolster his Nitto ATP Finals chances on Friday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

Zverev had three match points on his serve at 6-5, 40/0 in the second set, but lost the next five points, due, in part, to Federer’s best tennis of the quarter-final. The German had two more match points in the ensuing tie-break – 5/6 on Federer’s serve and 7/6 on his serve – but lost them both.

Zverev, however, regrouped in the third, crushing more backhand passes on the run for his first Top 10 win of the season and his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final since 12 months ago in Shanghai (l. to Djokovic).

Zverev adds 180 points to his ATP Race To London tally (2,615 points) to pass Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut (2,485) and move into seventh place. The top eight will compete at the prestigious season finale, to be held 10-17 November at The O2 in London.

The 22-year-old Zverev now leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Federer 4-3. Only two other active players who have faced Federer at least seven times have a winning record against the Swiss: World No. 1 Novak Djokovic (26-22) and No. 2 Rafael Nadal (24-16).

Zverev resembled the player who won the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals last November, his biggest title to date, with aggressive play in the opening sets. He was stepping into the court and outhitting Federer from the baseline, and when the Swiss forayed forward, Zverev smacked passes from both wings.

The German broke in the sixth game of the opener and again at 5-5 in the second set before he stepped up to the line to serve for the match at 6-5.

Federer, however, facing match points, delivered his best shots of the match, including two volleys that Zverev could only attempt to chase down as the pro-Federer Shanghai crowd roared with approval.

The Swiss let out a shout after winning five straight points from 0/40, 5-6 down and, in the tie-break, won his first set point to force a deciding set.

Zverev, though, broke in Federer’s first service game of the third set and stayed locked in, despite Federer’s frequent discussions with the chair umpire. The 28-time Masters 1000 champion received a point penalty for ball abuse at 0-3 down in the third set.

Zverev served out the quarter-final to 15 and set up a semi-final against the winner of London hopeful Matteo Berrettini of Italy and Austrian Dominic Thiem, who has already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals.

Stefanos Tsitsipas has successfully transitioned from lifting the Next Gen ATP Finals trophy in November 2018 to qualifying for the first time to the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals. The Greek star, who will compete among the world’s best eight singles players at The O2 in London, stamped his ticket for the 10-17 November event as a result of early play on Friday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

The 20-year-old Tsitsipas, who beat Alex de Minaur in the title match of the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan 11 months ago, has compiled a 44-21 match record and won two ATP Tour titles in a career-best 2019 season. He joins Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem at the elite season finale next month.

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Tsitsipas became the first Greek player to break into the Top 5 of the ATP Rankings (at No. 5) on 5 August 2019, during a season which has included titles at the Open 13 Provence (d. Kukushkin) and at the Millennium Estoril Open (d. Cuevas). Additionally, he upset World No. 2 Nadal to reach his second ATP Masters 1000 final at the Mutua Madrid Open (l. to Djokovic) and beat Federer at the Australian Open, en route to becoming the youngest Grand Slam championship semi-finalist since 20-year-old Djokovic at the 2007 US Open. He finished as runner-up to Federer at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and, last week, reached the China Open final in Beijing (l. to Thiem).

Two singles spots are now left up for grabs at the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals. Roberto Bautista Agut and 2018 champion Alexander Zverev are currently in seventh and eighth places respectively in the 2019 ATP Race To London, but Matteo Berrettini, David Goffin, Fabio Fognini, Kei Nishikori and Gael Monfils are also among the contenders with one month to go until the start of the prestigious event.

The ATP’s crown jewel event is to be held at The O2 in London through to 2020, where it has been staged to wide acclaim since 2009. The event has successfully established itself as one of the major annual sporting events worldwide, broadcast in more than 180 territories with global viewership figures reaching an average of 95 million each year.