Granollers/Zeballos Reach Shanghai SFs, Boost Turin Hopes

Peter Staples/ATP Tour

Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos maintained their perfect run Wednesday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, but the seventh seeds had to be clinical with their chances to reach the semi-finals in China.

Granollers and Zeballos made it eight sets played, eight sets won at the ATP Masters 1000 event by beating Robin Haase and Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(2), 6-3. The Spanish-Argentine pair raised its level to claim the first-set tie-break before converting the only break point of a serve-dominated encounter early in the second set for a 73-minute quarter-final victory.

With their win, Granollers and Zeballos boosted their Nitto ATP Finals qualification hopes. The duo has risen one spot to fifth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings as a result of its Shanghai run, putting it in a good position to reach the prestigious season finale for the fourth consecutive year.

Granollers and Zeballos’ semi-final opponents will be Rinky Hijikata and Cameron Norrie. The scratch Australian-British pair extended its dream run in Shanghai by beating fifth seeds Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 6-4, 3-6, 10-8.

It was a third straight Match Tie-break victory for Hijikata and Norrie, who upset third seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in the third round. They held their nerve to win three points in a row from 7/8 in the decider against Gonzalez and Molteni for a tense one-hour, 36-minute victory.