Learning from his loss to the same opponent last month, seventh-ranked Andrey Rublev got his revenge Friday and eased to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Ugo Humbert in the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters.
Rublev, the highest-ranked player still in the tournament, never looked pressured in the 91-minute victory even though he let slip a break advantage during the second set. The Russian player recovered to win the final four games to advance to his sixth Masters semifinal appearance where he’ll play Grigor Dimitrov.
Rublev improved to 3-2 against Humbert and said that losing two weeks ago to the Frenchman at the China Open had helped him win this time.
“The match in Beijing, both of us played great tennis and I had chances. I was serving for the match. He was playing really well that match and I tried to analyze what I did wrong that match,” Rublev said. “I tried to not make the same mistakes today and I did really well.”
Dimitrov, who beat second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz in the fourth round, defeated Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (2), 6-4.
The 18th-seeded Dimitrov was again in impressive form and weathered the Chilean’s booming serve to advance to the last four in Shanghai for the first time. The Bulgarian made only three unforced errors and dropped just four points off his first serve.
“I think there were many components going the right way today,” Dimitrov said. “For me, he is one of the best servers right now. I’ve played him a couple of times, and I feel like every time it gets tougher and tougher to return against him. In the most important moments, I was able to be just solid, nothing else.”
Jarry was playing in his first Masters quarterfinal match.
On Thursday, Sebastian Korda reached the last four at a Masters tournament for the first time by rallying to beat Ben Shelton. Korda will play Hubert Hurkacz in the semifinals.
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