Jannik Sinner through to Shanghai semifinals as Coco Gauff builds up momentum in Wuhan

Top-ranked Jannik Sinner advanced to his fifth ATP Masters semifinal of the season as the Italian swept aside fifth-ranked Daniil Medvedev in straight sets at the Shanghai Masters on Thursday.

Sinner started strongly and only faced one break point in his 6-1, 6-4 masterclass over the Russian, who needed treatment on his shoulder from the physio during the second set.

“Obviously I’m very happy how I handled today and this match,” Sinner said. “It felt like he had a bit of shoulder pain and couldn’t hit his forehand as well as he wished to. Hopefully he can recover as fast as possible, but from my side it was a great match, a great battle, and let’s see what I can do now in the semifinals.”

With Thursday’s win, the two-time major winner has leveled his head-to-head series against Medvedev at 7-7, but has won seven of the last eight meetings with the Russian.

It moved Sinner to his first semifinal in Shanghai and he will play either second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, in a re-match of their thrilling duel from the China Open last week, or Tomas Machac, who play later Thursday.

Wuhan Open

Coco Gauff advanced to the quarterfinals of the Wuhan Open with a 6-4, 6-1 rout of 17th-ranked Marta Kostyuk in just over an hour.

It was the fourth-ranked Gauff’s eighth consecutive win on the WTA Tour’s Asian swing after the American won the China Open last week which moved her back into the top five in the rankings.

Gauff fired two aces and broke the Ukrainian’s serve five times — for the loss of one of her own — as she clinched a one-sided match and extended her lead in their head-to-head series to 3-1.

Next for Gauff is No. 45-ranked Magda Linette, who continued her impressive form this week by beating eighth-seeded Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-3.

“Yeah, so she’s a tough opponent,” Gauff said of Linette. “We haven’t played since (the U.S. Open in 2021). I really don’t know what to expect. But just from watching her play, she’s been playing a great couple of matches here in Wuhan.

“I expect it to be a tough match. She’s not an easy opponent to play.”

Gauff will be the only American left in the draw after third-ranked Jessica Pegula and tour rookie Hailey Baptiste both lost.

Pegula, the U.S. Open finalist, had a tough afternoon against the 51st-ranked Wang Xinyu of China, who was dominant on serve throughout and clinched a 6-3, 7-5 win to make her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal.

Wang had won their only previous meeting in three sets in the second round at Wimbledon earlier this year and got off to a fast start here by breaking Pegula twice in the opening set to take the lead.

After her first win over a top 10 player in the previous round, Baptiste was routed 6-1, 6-1 by Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Paris Olympics gold medalist Zheng Qinwen rallied to beat Leylah Fernandez 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 and sixth-ranked Jasmine Paolini defeated Erika Andreeva 6-3, 6-2.

Later, second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka looked to maintain her undefeated record at the Wuhan Open when she plays Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in her third-round match.

A win for the Belarussian will allow her to regain top spot in the rankings from Iga Swiatek, who is absent from the women’s tour Asian swing citing personal reasons and fatigue.

Sabalenka, the reigning U.S. Open champion, is 13-0 in Wuhan after winning the title on her first appearance in 2018 and defending her crown in 2019 before the tournament took a five-year hiatus from the calendar due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.