Sebastian Korda outlasted Ben Shelton to reach the Shanghai Masters semi-finals, will meet Hubert Hurkacz
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Updated 12/10/2023 at 17:03 GMT+1
Sebastian Korda won a marathon all-American battle over Ben Shelton to reach the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters despite needing six match points to seal a 6-7 (10/12), 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) victory. Korda next faces Hubert Hurkacz, who ended Fabian Marozsan’s fairytale run, to maintain the Pole’s shot at reaching the ATP finals.
Hurkacz comes from set down to reach Shanghai semis and end Marozsan run
Video credit: SNTV
Sebastian Korda won a marathon all-American battle with Ben Shelton to reach the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, while Hubert Hurkacz ended Fabian Marozsan’s fairytale run to keep the Pole in the hunt for a spot at the ATP finals.
Korda was pushed all the way to reach his first Masters semi-final in a tight contest that lasted nearly three hours before prevailing 6-7 (10) 6-2 7-6 (6).
The first all-American Masters quarter-final for six years did not disappoint. Shelton had knocked out world No. 4 Jannik Sinner on his way to the last eight in his first tournament since reaching the US Open semi-finals.
The 20-year-old appeared on course to take the first set when he secured the first break of serve to lead 6-5, but was immediately broken back to love.
Shelton then needed five set points to take a marathon tie-break 12-10, but paid for those efforts as he tired in the second set.
Korda, who had an impressive victory earlier in the week over Daniil Medvedev, bounced straight back at the start of the second set to take a 3-0 lead with two breaks before closing it out 6-2.
The world No. 26 also struck in the first game of the deciding set, breaking to love, only to hand the advantage back at 4-4.
In a reverse of the first set breaker, this time it was Korda who struggled to get over the line as he surrendered a 6-1 lead. Shelton battled back to 6-6, only to then lose the final two points.
“I played a really high level," Korda told ATP media. "Ben did as well, so I think it was a really high level.
“We had a lot of great points out there and hopefully it’s the first of many battles that we play against each other.
“He’s such an electric tennis player and it was a lot of fun to share the court with him today.”
Next up for Korda is giant Pole Hurkacz, who withstood an early onslaught from an in-form Marozsan to win 4-6 6-1 6-3.
Marozsan shocked Casper Rudd on his run to a first ATP 1000 quarter-final and unpicked the Pole’s big serve by twice breaking to take the first set.
Hurkacz, though, restored order with a dominant display in the second set, dropping just four points on serve, to take it 6-1.
Marozsan will reach a new career-high ranking on Monday, surpassing his previous best of 82 in the world, but was left to rue the chance to continue a fine week in Shanghai when he passed up a break point for a 4-2 lead in the deciding set.
Instead, Hurkacz held to level at 3-3 and won 15 of the last 16 points to romp to a tour-leading 21st deciding-set victory of the season.
“He came with some really great shots, and I just needed to stay positive and keep committing to the gameplan,” said Hurkacz.
“If I dropped anything short he was just taking advantage of it and coming with some really incredible shots. I knew I had to stay on point today.”
Victory also keeps alive the 26-year-old’s outside shot at making the end-of-season ATP Finals in Turin.
On the other side of the draw, Grigor Dimitrov, who stunned top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the last 16, takes on Chile’s Nicolas Jarry in the last eight.
Fifth-seed Andrey Rublev takes on France’s Ugo Humbert in the other quarter-final.
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