World Number 2 Carlos Alcaraz who was knocked out of the Shanghai Masters in the round of 16 by Grigor Dimitrov on October 11, said that it will be tough to end the year as world number one.
The 32-year-old Bulgarian, Grigor Dimitrov earned his first win over the two-time major winner in their fourth encounter, coming back from relinquishing a 5-3 lead in the first set to seal a 5-7 6-2 6-4 victory. He plays Nicolas Jarry of Chile in the quarter-final.
The 20-year-old after the loss said, “Well, with this loss I’m a little bit farther and it’s going to be tougher if I want to be world number one. I have a few tournaments ahead so I’ll try to do my best. I’ll try to, you know, win them if I want to have a chance to end the year as number one. I don’t know but right now I lose a lot of opportunities to make it.”
The fourth round upset sees Alcaraz exit the ATP 1000 event trailing world number one Novak Djokovic, who pulled out of the Shanghai tournament, by 500 points.
Meanwhile, Andrey Rublev beat American 12th seed Tommy Paul in straight sets to complete the quarter-finals line-up at the Shanghai Masters on Wednesday (October 11).
The Russian fifth seed broke serve twice at 5-5 in each set en route to a 7-5 7-5 victory in just over 90 minutes of action.
Rublev needs meets 32nd seed Ugo Humbert of France, who knocked him out of last week’s China Open in Beijing, for a place in the semis.