For the second straight year at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, Jannik Sinner and Ben Shelton met in the fourth round. On Wednesday, Sinner reversed last season’s result to deny the American the biggest win of his career by PIF ATP Ranking on his 22nd birthday.
Sinner scored a 6-4, 7-6(1) win in an entertaining match full of electric shotmaking, improving to 4-1 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series. The World No. 1 has not lost to Shelton since their first meeting last year in Shanghai, when the American came from behind to prevail in a third-set tie-break.
“It was very tough. He played only first serves, except one second serve,” Sinner said, referring to Shelton’s incredible 95 per cent first-serve percentage in the opening set. “I tried to wait a little bit. Obviously playing against him, even if it’s a second serve, it’s very tough to return.
“But if I look the positive picture, how I ended the match, I tried to stay a bit more aggressive, which I’ve done, and this hopefully can give me confidence for the for the next round.”
