Jannik Sinner successfully avenged his debt to Ben Shelton with a fourth-round victory at the 2024 Shanghai Masters tennis tournament.

Jannik Sinner and Ben Shelton met in the fourth round of last year’s Shanghai Masters, with Shelton winning their first meeting on the ATP Tour.

Sinner has since won three consecutive matches against the American, and he is eager to beat his opponent in the fourth round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Shanghai this year, after falling short last year.

Of course, the same can be said of Shelton, who loves to play in big matches. With his win over the Italian in Shanghai last year, the American is confident about his chances in this match.

And he had good reason. Shelton had the first break point of the match, in the fourth game, when Sinner was down 30-40 on his serve. The world No. 1 saved that break point, but his opponent created another. Still, the top seed had the nerve to finish the game.

On the other hand, Shelton was perfect on his serve in the first set, almost unbreakable. He had a first serve percentage of 95%. With the power on his serve, Sinner was almost unstoppable.

In the first four service games of the opening set, Shelton did not lose a point. However, that did not matter when in the ninth game of the first set, Shelton suffered a disastrous break.

It was a disappointing turn of events for the American, who arguably played the better part of the opening set, but had nothing to show for it as Sinner took the first set 6-4.

Shelton continued his impressive serving form in the second set of the match. This time, he did not have as high a first serve percentage as before, only 61%, but still won 91% of the rallies after serving first.

That kept him in the game for much of the set, and with some determination on the return, the American found the first break point of the set at 30-40 in the sixth game of the second set. But Sinner saved it with a beautiful drop shot.

The American then had another break point in that game, but it was still not enough to break his opponent’s serve. Then, in the next return game, Shelton went all out and created three consecutive break points.

Incredibly, Sinner saved them all. The Italian saved a total of seven out of seven break points his opponent created in the match. In addition, he took advantage of the only chance he created, and that was the deciding factor in this match.

The second set had to be decided in a tie-break, and Shelton could not maintain his high form, as he was easily defeated in the tie-break. Sinner won 7-1 to end the match with a score of 6-4, 7-6, thereby booking a ticket to the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters 2024.

This is the 14th quarterfinal of the season for Sinner, who has reached at least the quarterfinals in every tournament he has played this year. His next opponent will be the winner of the match between Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, two of the only four players to have beaten him this year.