ATP Tour

Sinner reaches Paris QFs for first time, faces Shelton next

Jannik Sinner advanced to the quarter-finals at the Rolex Paris Masters for the first time on Thursday, when he moved past Francisco Cerundolo 7-5, 6-1 to keep alive his hopes of returning to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

The Italian moved tentatively at times between points in the opening set and flexed out his right leg but never called for a medical timeout during the 86-minute clash. The second seed struck 12 winners to just two unforced errors in the opening set to lead and then won a 10-minute game at the start of the second set to break Cerundolo’s serve, striking a forehand winner on his second break point of the game. From that moment, Sinner raced to victory.

"I was up twice with the break in the first set and I could not convert," Sinner said. "I put myself in not an easy situation, but I am happy with how I ended the match and I felt much better. Hopefully, it will give me the confidence to start off in a good way tomorrow. Hopefully, I can recover physically, which is my main priority. Today was a great match and a great performance from my side."

With his win, Sinner became the first Italian to reach the quarter-finals at all nine ATP Masters 1000 events. The 24-year-old has triumphed at Masters 1000s in Miami, Canada, Cincinnati and Shanghai.

Sinner, who leads Cerundolo 4-2 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series, has won his past 23 matches indoors and has kept alive his hopes of capitalising on Carlos Alcaraz’s early Paris loss in the battle for World No. 1: The Italian can return to top spot next Monday if he can lift his first Masters 1000 title of the season.

Sinner will next meet Ben Shelton after the American defeated Andrey Rublev 7-6(6), 6-3. Shelton and Sinner will both compete at the Nitto ATP Finals next month.

Shelton defeated Sinner in Shanghai in 2023 but has lost the following six meetings, not winning a set in any of the encounters. The American will hope to change that record on Friday.

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In other action, Daniil Medvedev remained in Nitto ATP Finals contention with a hard-fought 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 win against Lorenzo Sonego. The 29-year-old, 13th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, must win the title in Paris to give himself a chance of competing in Turin next month.

Medvedev captured his first trophy in 882 days earlier in October in Almaty, having also reached semi-finals in Beijing and Shanghai in recent weeks. Into his 25th Masters 1000 quarter-final, Medvedev will next play Alexander Zverev.

The German Zverev eliminated 15th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-2, 6-4 to advance. Zverev committed just one unforced error on the backhand and was locked in throughout in a dominant performance against the Spaniard, who lost in the Basel final on Sunday.

Zverev is the defending champion in Paris and is chasing his eighth Masters 1000 title this weekend. Medvedev leads Zverev 14-7 in the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head series and has won their past five meetings. The World No. 3's last win against Medvedev came in Cincinnati in 2023.