Alex De Minaur (Australia) has reached the round of 16 at the ATP Masters 1000 Rolex Shanghai Masters. In the round of 32, the ninth seed defeated Japan's Rei Sakamoto 7:6, 6:4. The Shanghai tournament is played on hard courts with total prize money of $11.2 million. Match details are from api.tennis.
The first set went to a tiebreak, where De Minaur came out on top. In the second set, the Australian sealed the win 6:4, closing out the match in straight sets. His recent match at the China Open followed a similar pattern: there, in the round of 32, he beat Mariano Navone 7:6, 6:2, also taking the first set in a tiebreak.
Qualifier's streak comes to an end
Sakamoto arrived at this match on a four-match winning streak at the tournament. In qualifying, he got past Seongchan Hong (6:3, 7:5) and Kyrian Jacquet (7:6, 4:6, 7:6). In the main draw, the Japanese player defeated Marco Trungelliti (6:3, 7:5) and then Andrey Rublev (6:4, 6:4). Before facing Sakamoto, De Minaur had beaten Alex Molcan.
According to the rank.tennis rankings, the gap between the two players was significant. De Minaur sits at No. 9 with 3330 points, while Sakamoto is ranked 126th with 463 points.