It is no secret that progressing as a professional tennis player requires sacrifice and patience. The higher you climb, the tougher the opponents become.

Federico Coria has been ready to tackle that challenge since leaving the juniors seven years ago, and now is starting to achieve his goals.

After a strong 2016 season during which he was the top Argentine on the ITF Futures Circuit, at one point winning four consecutive titles, Coria made another jump forward this season, competing on the ATP Challenger Tour. As expected, the transition has been demanding, but nonetheless he shows signs of improvement. This week, Coria has advanced to the quarter-finals of the Copa San Cristobal in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after defeating compatriot Juan Pablo Ficovich.

“I’m happy to keep advancing in the tournament. It´s a beautiful club, where I trained for a year and a half. I have the best memories of it. And because friends, my girlfriend, and my new team – headed by coach Francisco Yunis — watched,” Coria said. “When they’re here, you have to take the best from them. It’s a great feeling to be accompanied. Most of the season I’m alone.”

Alone or not, Coria’s results have been increasingly solid.

“Last December, I was afraid of confronting this year by playing only Challengers. But now I’m not,” Coria said. “My objective was to change the points from Futures to Challengers. If I end up with a better ranking, that´s good. In Biella I made it to the quarters and in San Benedetto to the semis. This season started well.”

Since breaking into the Top 250 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, “Fefo” played Wimbledon and US Open qualifying after missing the cut at Roland Garros qualifying by only two spots.

“It was difficult not to be impressed by everything,” Coria said of the experience. “I always dreamed to be there.”

Federico, 25, is inspired by his older brother’s legacy. But Guillermo, a former World No. 3 and the 2004 Roland Garros finalist, cannot just be his hero, Federico says.

“I want him to stop being my idol, a little bit, so he can be my brother because I see him and I keep shaking. I grew up watching him doing all that he did on TV. So, I was never able to enjoy him as a brother, from another side,” Coria said.

“Today, with 25 years, I want to change that. Always, when I finish a match, I have a message from him. He’s very aware of me, but gives me space. He supports me, but doesn’t get into anything. The message that he leaves me is that I have to win everything for myself and enjoy tennis. Every win I live it like that and I’m much less dramatic in defeat.”

Roger Federer continued his pursuit of a second Shanghai Rolex Masters title with a straightforward 6-4, 6-2 win on Thursday evening against the lone qualifier to advance to the third round, Alexandr Dolgopolov.

The Swiss was never significantly challenged in the match, facing just one break point, as he served for the first set. But when the Ukrainian made an error down break point at 2-2 in the second set, the finish line came into sight, and Federer then broke again in a 19-point game at 4-2 to allow him to serve for the match, which he did without a hitch.

Federer advances to his fourth quarter-final in six appearances in Shanghai. Each time he has made it that far at the event, he has continued to at least the semi-finals.

The No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, who has already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals, is seeking his sixth title of the season, which would tie Rafael Nadal for the ATP World Tour lead.

The 36 year old will next play Richard Gasquet, against whom he has a 15-2 lead in their FedEx ATP Head2Head. Federer has not lost to the Frenchman since 2011 in Rome, with the other defeat coming in 2005 (Monte Carlo).

Gasquet advanced to the quarter-final with a back-and-forth 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-3 victory over compatriot Gilles Simon in two hours and 40 minutes.

It appeared that the 31 year old would quickly extend his FedEx ATP Head2Head over Simon to 7-0 when he broke to lead 3-1 in the second set, but his 32-year-old opponent fought back to force a decider. While Simon broke immediately in the third set to gain the advantage, Gasquet then broke twice in a row and held on to earn a spot in his first Shanghai quarter-final.

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Fourth seeds Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray, the next team in line to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November, advanced to the Shanghai Rolex Masters quarter-finals on Thursday by beating Kevin Anderson and Nenad Zimonjic 7-5, 6-2 in 75 minutes. Murray and Soares, currently No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Race To London, will now face sixth seeds and fellow contenders Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.

Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau booked their tickets to London next month for the season finale, which they won in 2015, as a result of defeating Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 3-6, 6-4, 10-6 in 72 minutes. They now meet seventh seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic or wild cards Di Wu and Yibing Wu.

Fifth seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers, currently No. 9 in the battle for a spot in the English capital, edged into the last eight by virtue of beating Marcin Matkowski and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-7 in one hour and 43 minutes. They will next challenge top seeds and Nitto ATP Finals qualifiers Henri Kontinen and John Peers on Friday at the Qi Zhong Stadium in Shanghai.

Santiago Gonzalez and Julio Peralta, runners up at last week’s Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017 (l. to Mclachlan/Uchiyama), knocked out eighth seeds and this year’s Roland Garros champions Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus 6-4, 7-6(5) in 79 minutes. They await the winners of Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez versus Nitto ATP Finals qualifiers and second seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the Shanghai quarter-finals.