Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime saw his Shanghai Masters campaign come to an end with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat against France’s Arthur Rinderknech in the quarterfinals on Friday. Auger-Aliassime, seeded 12th, delivered eight aces but struggled with three double faults, all occurring in the first set.
Rinderknech, ranked 54th globally, displayed a dominant performance by winning 83% of points on his first serve, outperforming Auger-Aliassime’s 64%. The French player secured a break in each set and successfully saved all three break points he faced. Notably, this marked Rinderknech’s third consecutive victory over a top-20 opponent in Shanghai, with the match concluding after one hour and 28 minutes.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in China, Bianca Andreescu from Mississauga, Ontario, and her partner Yue Yuan from China were ousted in the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the Wuhan Open, suffering a 6-4, 7-6 (1) defeat against Aleksandra Krunic and Anna Danilina. In another semifinal clash, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic is set to square off against Monaco’s Valentin Vacherot.
In a separate event at the Wuhan Open, Aryna Sabalenka extended her winning streak to 20 matches by defeating eighth-seeded Elena Rybakina 6-3, 6-3, advancing to the WTA 1000-level tournament semifinals. Sabalenka, the reigning U.S. Open champion, secured three breaks of Rybakina’s serve in a 1-hour, 25-minute encounter. She is now set to face sixth-seeded Jessica Pegula, who staged a remarkable comeback against Katerina Siniakova with a 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 victory.
The tournament also featured No. 2-ranked Iga Swiatek facing Jasmine Paolini and No. 3 Coco Gauff scheduled to meet Laura Siegemund in the other quarterfinal matches. Sabalenka expressed satisfaction with her performance, acknowledging the fierce competition provided by Rybakina in their matches.
