Troicki Stuns Thiem For Biggest Win of '17

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.

 Watch Live On TennisTV

 Watch Full Match Replays

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.