Third set settles it
Two hours and nine minutes of swinging momentum, and Daniil Medvedev came out the other side. The fifth seed beat Tommy Paul 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 earlier today at the Shanghai Masters to reach the semifinals, and he got there by winning the only set in which he was still serving like himself.
Paul had looked like the better player for a stretch. He took the second set 6-1, pushed Medvedev deep behind the baseline and made him run. Then he opened the decider with a loose service game and never won the break back. Paul landed only 47 percent of his first serves in that final set and piled up 17 unforced errors.
Medvedev’s own numbers were far from clean. He hit 16 aces against eight double faults and won just 36 percent of his second-serve points across the match. The first ball saved him, 74 percent of those points won, along with four conversions from 12 break-point looks. “I think today I was a tiny bit off from time to time but the third set was great,” he said, admitting he had been tired at the end of the second.
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Shanghai keeps treating him well
This is Medvedev’s third semifinal at this tournament, on the court where he lifted the trophy in 2019. He is the only former Shanghai champion still standing in the draw, and he now holds a 5-1 record against Paul.
The run also lifts him to sixth in the live Race to Turin on 3,420 points, which carries more weight than usual this deep into October. Two more wins here would hand him his biggest title of the season at the exact moment the qualifying math tightens.
Jodar waits in the semifinal
Rafael Jodar got through first. The 12th seed beat Casper Ruud 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours and 20 minutes, breaking the Norwegian three times in the decider after dropping the opening set. At 20, the Spaniard is the youngest semifinalist in the tournament’s history, and he has now recovered from a set down in four consecutive matches, having done it to Thiago Agustin Tirante, Jiri Lehecka and Botic van de Zandschulp before Ruud. “I’m super happy how the season is going,” he said, while insisting there is plenty left to fix.
Jodar sits ninth in the live Race to Turin, inside the final qualifying place with Jannik Sinner out for the rest of the year. The other semifinal pairs top seed Alexander Zverev with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
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