Jannik Sinner got his revenge against Ben Shelton, beating him in the fourth round of the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
These two players also met in the fourth round of the Shanghai Masters last year. Back then, it was Shelton who proved to be victorious in what was their first match on the ATP Tour.
Since then, Sinner has been able to win three consecutive matches against the American, and he certainly didn't lack motivation to beat him in the fourth round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Shanghai this year, having lost last year.
Of course, the same could be said about Shelton as well since he loves to play big matches. Having beaten the Italian in Shanghai last year, he certainly fancied his chances in this match.
And he had a good reason for that. He was the first player to have break points in the match, already in the fourth game, when Sinner fell behind 30-40 on his serve. The World No. 1 player saved that break point, but his opponent created another one with an advantage. Still, the top seed also saved that.
On the other hand, Shelton was perfect on his serve in the first set, almost unplayable. He hit the first serve 95% of the time, something unheard of, and with the power in his serve, it was impossible for Sinner to deal with.
In his first four service games in the opening set, Shelton went without losing a single point, winning them all to love. However, that didn't matter when the ninth game of the set rolled around, as Shelton faced a break point, the only one in the match, and he got broken.
It was an incredibly disappointing development for the American player, who arguably, at times, was the better player during the first set. Still, he had nothing to show for it as Sinner won the first set of the match 6-4.
Shelton's great serving continued also in the second set of the match. This time, he didn't hit his first serve at such a high rate, hitting it 61% of the time, but he still won 91% of the rallies played after his first serve.
That carried him throughout the majority of the set, and with a bit of aggression on the return, the American player found a way to the first break point of the set at 30-40 in the sixth game of the second set. But Sinner saved it with a beautiful drop shot.
The American player was then able to get to another break point in that game, but it still wasn't enough for him to break. Immediately in his next return game, Shelton pushed the pedal to the metal and he created three consecutive break chances.
Incredibly, Sinner saved all of them, saving seven out of seven break points his opponent had in the match. On top of that, he used the only chance that he worked his way to, and that was the crucial factor in this match.
The second set had to be decided in a tie-break, and Shelton could not sustain the high level, as he was easily beaten in the tie-break. Sinner won it 7-1 to win the match 6-4, 7-6(1), reaching the quarter-finals of the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
It's the 14th quarter-final of the season for Sinner, who reached at least the quarter-final stage at every tournament that he has played this year. Up next, he will play against the winner of the match between Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, two of only four players who beat him this year.