Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti on Wednesday.
The 12th-seeded Montreal native closed out the match with consecutive aces after an hour and 25 minutes on the hard court. The victory evened his career record against Musetti at four wins each and ended the Italian’s two-match run, which included wins at the 2024 Paris Olympics and this year’s Miami Masters.
Auger-Aliassime, 25, will face France’s Arthur Rinderknech in the quarters. Rinderknech defeated 15th-seeded Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6 (5). The Canadian has won both of their previous meetings, earning victories earlier this season in Cincinnati and Mallorca.
Auger-Aliassime finished with six aces to Musetti’s three, committed one double fault and won 76 per cent of his first-serve points compared with 59 per cent for Musetti. He converted three of six break chances and didn’t drop serve.
He’s the last Canadian remaining in Shanghai after Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo fell 6-3, 5-7, 6-7 (8) to Belgium’s Zizou Bergs in the Round of 16 on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, seventh-seeded Alex De Minaur of Australia moved on with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Portugal’s Nuno Borges. He’ll face either American Learner Tien or Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the next round.
Sabalenka advances at Wuhan Open
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka overcame an early scare to beat unseeded Rebecca Sramkova 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 at the Wuhan Open on Wednesday.
The defending champion has had an amazing run in Wuhan — her record is 18-0 while winning titles in 2018, 2019 and 2024.
The U.S. Open champion Sabalenka broke her 68th-ranked opponent in the opening game of the final set and went on before converting her second match point to win in almost two hours.
“I knew that after that little break, it will be not that easy to get back in my rhythm,” Sabalenka said in her on-court interview. “I’m really gland the in the second set I found my game and stepped in and I think I played really great.”
Sabalenka started her rally by breaking her 68th-ranked opponent in fourth game of the second set and jumped to a 4-1 lead. She saved four break points in the seventh game.
She faces next No. 16 seed Liudmila Samsonova who rallied to beat 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Sramkova broke Sabalenka twice in the opening set.
Sabalenka, who took a Greek holiday after her second consecutive win at Flushing Meadows, withdrew from last week’s China Open, another WTA 1000-level event.
Jessica Pegula was twice broken while serving for the match in the third set but recovered to edge Hailey Baptiste in a tight tiebreaker and advance.
Sixth-seeded Pegula beat her fellow American 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6) on her seventh match point to reach the third round.
Pegula, who lost in the China Open semifinals last week, will next play ninth-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova, who beat American Ann Li 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Gauff advances, Osaka eliminated
No. 3 Coco Gauff, coming off a semifinal loss to eventual champion Amanda Anisimova at the China Open last week, breezed into the next round with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Moyuka Uchijima in 51 minutes.
Also, qualifier Kateřina Siniaková beat Maya Joint 6-3, 6-1.
Eleventh-seeded Naomi Osaka was upset by unseeded Linda Noskova 7-6 (2), 6-3. The 20-year-old inform Czech was defeated by Amanda Anisimova in the final of the China Open on Sunday.
Noskova, ranked 17th, will next face either Jaqueline Cristian or Elena Rybakina.
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