American Ben Shelton, the No 5 seed, won against Russian Andrey Rublev, the No 12 seed, 7-6 (6), 6-3 to move into the quarter-finals of Paris Masters at the Paris La Défense Arena on Thursday and qualify for the ATP Finals in Turin. It’s his first qualification in career.
“I knew I would be qualified in case of a win but I tried not to think about it and to stay “in Paris”, I’m happy by my performance”, he said on court. “That’s the best tennis I’ve played for months. It’s huge? It has always been a huge goal for me and overall to be back at the level i’ve played today.”
Shelton, ranked No 7, will face the winner of the match between Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo and Italian Jannik Sinner, the second seed, next. The American defeated Italian Flavio Cobolli (7-6 (4), 6-3) in the previous round of the Paris Masters tournament.
Qualified for the ATP Finals :
1 Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) 11,050
2 Jannik Sinner (ITA) 9,100
3 Alexander Zverev (GER) 4,660
4 Novak Djokovic (SRB) 4,580
5 Taylor Fritz (USA) 3,935
6 Ben Shelton (USA) 3,970
Can qualify :
7 Alex de Minaur (AUS) 3,835
8 Lorenzo Musetti (ITA) 3,685
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9 Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) 3,295
12 Daniil Medvedev 2,660 Paris
13 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP)
15 Alexander Bublik (KAZ)
Paris Masters 1000, other last 16 results (La Défense Arena, hard, EUR 6.128.940, most recent results first):
- Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Alexander Zverev
- Francisco Cerundolo vs. Jannik Sinner
- Lorenzo Sonego vs. Daniil Medvedev
- Karen Khachanov vs. Alex De Minaur
- Taylor Fritz vs. Alexander Bublik: thursday
- Felix Auger-Aliassime (9) beat Daniel Altmaier: 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
- Valentin Vacherot (WC) beat Cameron Norrie: 7-6 (4), 6-4
