Round 2 in Shanghai means the seeded players land in the draw, and it was a mixed bag of results for those lucky enough to receive a first-round bye.
Casper Ruud made a successful Shanghai debut with a one-sided win over Yoshihito Nishioka. However, fellow Scandinavian Holger Rune was rocked by Brandon Nakashima in straight sets.
Other seeds to fall included Alex de Minaur, who the talented Fabian Marozsan outhit, while Lorenzo Musetti crashed out to the Hsu Yu Hsiou, who is playing in his first-ever Masters 1000.
Roman Safiullin then backed up his win against Andy Murray by gaining revenge over ninth seed Sascha Zverev, whom he lost to in the Chengdu final, with an even more resounding victory.
Round of 64 Rolex Shanghai Masters Results
Winner
Loser
Scoreline
Carlos Alcaraz (1)
Gregoire Barrere
6-2 7-5
Daniil Medvedev (2)
Cristian Garin
6-3 6-3
Brandon Nakashima
Holger Rune (3)
6-0 6-2
Stefanos Tsitsipas (4)
Rinky Hijikata (Q)
6-4 6-2
Andrey Rublev (5)
Quentin Halys
6-4 7-5
Jannik Sinner (6)
Marcos Giron
7-6(7) 6-2
Taylor Fritz (7)
Yosuke Watanuki
7-6(2) 6-7(6) 6-4
Casper Ruud (8)
Yoshihito Nishioka
7-5 6-0
Roman Safiullin
Alexander Zverev (9)
6-3 6-1
Lorenzo Sonego
Frances Tiafoe (10)
2-6 6-2 6-3
Fabian Marozsan
Alex de Minaur (11)
6-3 7-5
Tommy Paul (12)
Sebastian Ofner
6-3 6-0
Karen Khachanov (13)
Beibit Zhukayev (Q)
7-6(1) 4-6 6-2
Marton Fucsovics
Felix Auger-Aliassime (14)
7-6(3) 4-6 6-3
J.J. Wolf
Cameron Norrie (15)
6-3 5-7 7-6(4)
Hubert Hurkacz (16)
Thanasi Kokkinakis
7-6(5) 6-4
Yu Hsiou Hsu (Q)
Lorenzo Musetti (17)
6-3 6-4
Grigor Dimitrov (18)
Aleksandar Vukic
6-4 6-3
Ben Shelton (19)
Jaume Munar
6-4 6-4
Francisco Cerundolo (20)
Mackenzie McDonald
7-6(4) 7-65
Matteo Arnaldi
Jan-Lennard Struff (21)
6-3 3-6 6-4
Nicolas Jarry (22)
Terence Atmane (Q)
7-5 6-2
Dusan Lajovic
Tallon Griekspoor (23
6-4 3-2 (RET)
Arthur Fils
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (24)
6-2 7-5
Sebastian Baez (25)
Dane Sweeny (Q)
6-2 6-4
Sebastian Korda (26)
Yunchaokete Bu (WC)
6-1 6-4
Diego Schwartzman (WC)
Jiri Lehecka (27)
6-4 3-6 6-2
Zhizhen Zhang
Tomas Martin Etcheverry (28)
4-6 6-3 6-4
Christopher Eubanks (29)
Yannick Hanfmann
4-6 6-3 6-2
Daniel Evans (30)
Mikhail Kukushkin (Q)
6-2 3-0 (RET)
Adrian Mannarino (31)
Chun-Hsin Tseng (Q)
6-2 6-2
Ugo Humbert (32
Botic van de Zandschulp
6-4 1-6 6-2
Rune’s Rough Patch Continues
Holger Rune hasn’t won back-to-back matches since Wimbledon, and his rough period continued in Shanghai, falling to a 6-0, 6-2 against Nakashima.
The Dane is still a candidate for the Tour Finals in Turin, but given his recent form and the points he’s defending, he’ll struggle to make the top eight.
Like Rune, Nakashima has also had a poor run of form, although his rocky patch extends to the entire season with very little in the way of wins.
However, he was able to pick up the first top-10 win of his career, breaking serve five times in the match to progress into the last 32 comfortably.
Alcaraz Makes Winning Debut
Carlos Alcaraz made a decent start to his Shanghai campaign with a 6-2, 7-5 victory against the competent Gregoire Barrere.
Alcaraz, who is still playing with strapping on his left thigh, made a lightening start to lead 4-0 in the first set, but Barerre did start to play well; his only issue was on serve as Alcaraz was able to find his feet in too many return games which ultimately made the difference.
I had just one practice here in Shanghai and then the match. I think he was more used to these conditions. He had more practice, a match in the bag, so it was really difficult to adapt my game in a new city, new conditions, but I think I did pretty well. I played really focused, I tried to take lessons from the last match in Beijing and tried to be a better player. I tried to not make the mistakes I did in Beijing and I think today I did pretty well. Alcaraz on the quick turnaround from Beijing.
Other Matches of Note
Medvedev Starts Title Defence: A comfortable win against Garin, but Medvedev said that Shanghai went from being one of the fastest to the joint slowest courts on tour this season.
Auger-Aliassime Struggles: A loss in three sets to Fucsovics means Felix’s season has been a damp squib, to put it mildly; he’s 58 in the live race rankings.
Sinner Starts Strong: Fresh off his title run in Beijing, Sinner took down Giron in straights, recovering an early break in the first set.
Shanghai Masters Round of 32 Matches
Carlos Alcaraz (1) vs Daniel Evans (30)
Grigor Dimitrov (18) vs Karen Khachanov (13)
Lorenzo Sonego vs Nicolas Jarry (22)
Diego Schwartzman (WC) vs Taylor Fritz (7)
Stefanos Tsitsipas (4) vs Ugo Humbert (32)
Matteo Arnaldi vs J.J. Wolf
Tommy Paul (12) vs Arthur Fils
Adrian Mannarino (31) vs Andrey Rublev (5)
Casper Ruud (8) vs Christopher Eubanks (29)
Dusan Lajovic vs Fabian Marozsan
Hubert Hurkacz (16) vs Yu Hsiou Hsu (Q)
Zhzizhen Zhang vs Brandon Nakashima
Jannik Sinner (6) vs Sebastian Baez (25)
Ben Shelton (19) vs Roman Safiullin
Marton Fucsovcis vs Francisco Cerundolo (20)
Sebastian Korda (26) vs Daniil Medvedev (2)
Has anyone impressed you in Shanghai so far? What do you think about the court surface being slowed?