Grigor Dimitrov reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters on Wednesday after producing an inspired performance to shock top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz.
Alcaraz won three games in a row to take the opening set but the brilliant Bulgarian bounced back in some style to land his biggest win in years with a 5-7 6-2 6-4 triumph.
The 32-year-old, watched on by coach Jamie Delgado, unsettled Alcaraz throughout, hitting 26 winners including 10 aces to defeat the Spaniard in two hours and nine minutes.
“I stayed in the match. I served really well but made a few errors in the first set,” said Dimitrov. “I was running out of opportunities but I started to understand his service game and I was solid in the third set.
“I knew what I had to do and I knew I had to apply constant pressure on him.
“I never left – 15 years still here. I’m not going anywhere.”
Dimitrov will next take on birthday boy Nicolas Jarry, who beat wild card Diego Schwartzman 6-3 5-7 6-3 to advance.
Jarry became just the fifth Chilean to reach an ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final, after Marcelo Rios, Fernando Gonzalez, Nicolas Massu and Cristian Garin.
Ugo Humbert beat American JJ Wolf for the loss of just three games in their fourth round meeting.
Frenchman Humbert took just 58 minutes to down the world No 51, racking up an impressive seven love games on both his own and Wolf’s serve.
The 6-1 6-2 victory advanced Humbert to the quarter-finals, where he will face Andrey Rublev or Tommy Paul.
Humbert reached his fifth ATP event quarter-final of 2023, and his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final since the Paris Masters in 2020.
