Alexander Zverev held on, despite losing five match points in the second set, to upset Roger Federer 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-3 and significantly bolster his Nitto ATP Finals chances on Friday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

Zverev had three match points on his serve at 6-5, 40/0 in the second set, but lost the next five points, due, in part, to Federer’s best tennis of the quarter-final. The German had two more match points in the ensuing tie-break – 5/6 on Federer’s serve and 7/6 on his serve – but lost them both.

Zverev, however, regrouped in the third, crushing more backhand passes on the run for his first Top 10 win of the season and his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final since 12 months ago in Shanghai (l. to Djokovic).

Zverev adds 180 points to his ATP Race To London tally (2,615 points) to pass Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut (2,485) and move into seventh place. The top eight will compete at the prestigious season finale, to be held 10-17 November at The O2 in London.

The 22-year-old Zverev now leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Federer 4-3. Only two other active players who have faced Federer at least seven times have a winning record against the Swiss: World No. 1 Novak Djokovic (26-22) and No. 2 Rafael Nadal (24-16).

Zverev resembled the player who won the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals last November, his biggest title to date, with aggressive play in the opening sets. He was stepping into the court and outhitting Federer from the baseline, and when the Swiss forayed forward, Zverev smacked passes from both wings.

The German broke in the sixth game of the opener and again at 5-5 in the second set before he stepped up to the line to serve for the match at 6-5.

Federer, however, facing match points, delivered his best shots of the match, including two volleys that Zverev could only attempt to chase down as the pro-Federer Shanghai crowd roared with approval.

The Swiss let out a shout after winning five straight points from 0/40, 5-6 down and, in the tie-break, won his first set point to force a deciding set.

Zverev, though, broke in Federer’s first service game of the third set and stayed locked in, despite Federer’s frequent discussions with the chair umpire. The 28-time Masters 1000 champion received a point penalty for ball abuse at 0-3 down in the third set.

Zverev served out the quarter-final to 15 and set up a semi-final against the winner of London hopeful Matteo Berrettini of Italy and Austrian Dominic Thiem, who has already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals.

Stefanos Tsitsipas has successfully transitioned from lifting the Next Gen ATP Finals trophy in November 2018 to qualifying for the first time to the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals. The Greek star, who will compete among the world’s best eight singles players at The O2 in London, stamped his ticket for the 10-17 November event as a result of early play on Friday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

The 20-year-old Tsitsipas, who beat Alex de Minaur in the title match of the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan 11 months ago, has compiled a 44-21 match record and won two ATP Tour titles in a career-best 2019 season. He joins Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem at the elite season finale next month.

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Tsitsipas became the first Greek player to break into the Top 5 of the ATP Rankings (at No. 5) on 5 August 2019, during a season which has included titles at the Open 13 Provence (d. Kukushkin) and at the Millennium Estoril Open (d. Cuevas). Additionally, he upset World No. 2 Nadal to reach his second ATP Masters 1000 final at the Mutua Madrid Open (l. to Djokovic) and beat Federer at the Australian Open, en route to becoming the youngest Grand Slam championship semi-finalist since 20-year-old Djokovic at the 2007 US Open. He finished as runner-up to Federer at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and, last week, reached the China Open final in Beijing (l. to Thiem).

Two singles spots are now left up for grabs at the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals. Roberto Bautista Agut and 2018 champion Alexander Zverev are currently in seventh and eighth places respectively in the 2019 ATP Race To London, but Matteo Berrettini, David Goffin, Fabio Fognini, Kei Nishikori and Gael Monfils are also among the contenders with one month to go until the start of the prestigious event.

The ATP’s crown jewel event is to be held at The O2 in London through to 2020, where it has been staged to wide acclaim since 2009. The event has successfully established itself as one of the major annual sporting events worldwide, broadcast in more than 180 territories with global viewership figures reaching an average of 95 million each year.

With more wins than any other player on Tour this year, Daniil Medvedev has become a constant face in the locker rooms of ATP Tour events.

The third-seeded Russian aims for his 57th victory of the season on Friday when he plays Fabio Fognini in the quarter-finals of the Rolex Shanghai Masters. But while his peers are used to seeing him around as he winds down his sixth year on Tour, Medvedev admitted the vibe around him has shifted after reaching five consecutive finals over the past two months.

“I do think [they treat me differently]. I start to feel different even if I try to stay the same. Other players talk to you differently,” Medvevev said after his third-round win on Thursday over Vasek Pospisil. “It’s done unconsciously. It’s the way it is and the way it will be for everyone who makes these kinds of results. The better results you do, the more different everything is.”

His winning ways have also led to more attention from the fans at the Qi Zhong Tennis Center. Medvedev has played all of his matches this week on Center Court 1 and his practise sessions are filled with fans hoping to catch a glimpse of him. But even if others view him differently, he’s working hard to not alter his own thinking.

”I actually do not take it as a positive or a negative because it’s kind of normal. I just have to do my best to handle my obligations and then step up on the tennis court and try to win the match,” Medvedev said. “No matter if you drop [in the ATP Rankings] or if you go higher, there are going to be different situations in your life that you have to deal with and still be able to play good on the tennis court. Hopefully I’m just going to be better and better on the court.”

The Russian’s modest, workmanlike approach has led to him currently riding a six-match winning streak after taking the title last month in St. Petersburg (d. Coric). Medvedev has also won 26 of his past 29 matches. That aura of dominance can get in the minds of his opponents, as evidenced by him saving five set points in his opening set against Pospisil.

But while his career-high standing of No. 4 in the ATP Rankings carries the pressure of being a title contender in any event he plays, he still prepares for every match as though it’s a final. His showdown against Fognini will be no exception.

“I don’t feel invincible, because I still lost some matches. If I would have won, let’s say, five tournaments in USA that I played, then I would tell you, ‘Yeah, maybe I am,’” Medvedev said. “I’m trying my best to keep the form I have. It’s really not easy, because as soon as you relax a little bit, the results will start to fall. That’s why I’m trying not to relax. I’m practising as hard as I can and playing my best in the tournaments also.”

Clinch a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals. Beat the World No. 1. Defeat all members of the ‘Big Three’ in the same season. Reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas can accomplish all of that on Friday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

But Tsitsipas faces a stern challenge in top seed Novak Djokovic, who rides a seven-match winning streak into their third FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Tsitsipas defeated Djokovic last year in Toronto in their only hard-court meeting, and the Serbian got his revenge this year in the Madrid final.

If the Greek superstar upsets Djokovic, he will become the sixth player to qualify for the season finale, which will be held at The O2 from 10-17 November. But the 20-year-old can also qualify if Italian Fabio Fognini beats Cincinnati titlist Daniil Medvedev earlier in the day.

Both players carry a lot of momentum into the clash, with Djokovic fresh off the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships title he won last week and Tsitsipas has earned five Top 30 wins in the past week and a half, after earning only five of them between the start of Rome in May and the beginning of last week’s ATP 500 event in Beijing.

Tsitsipas is already the youngest player to defeat each member of the ‘Big Three’ — Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal — and now he can do it in a single year, having beaten Federer at the Australian Open and Nadal in Madrid.

“It’s going to be very interesting the next couple of years to see how tennis will evolve and how the young guys are going to dominate the game,” Tsitsipas said after his second-round win in Shanghai. “I have been trying really hard to be up there, and I know that it’s not easy for me to maintain that level, because if I keep doing the same thing, my opponents will know what I’m doing and what works for me, so I always have to constantly improve and get better.”

It is also an important match for Djokovic, as the Serbian continues to close on Rafael Nadal in the battle to finish year-end No. 1. Djokovic can pull to within 460 points of Nadal in the ATP Race To London if he lifts his fifth Shanghai trophy this week.

“There is always something to work on. That’s the beauty of sport and life in general, you can always improve,” Djokovic said. “But I am very happy with the way I’m playing, with the way I’m feeling on the court.”

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Djokovic Raises His Game To Reach QFs
Italians Earn Key Wins

There will be another battle of the generations between 38-year-old Roger Federer and 22-year-old Alexander Zverev. There is a lot at stake for both men, with Federer pursuing his 29th ATP Masters 1000 crown and reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Zverev scratching and clawing to return to The O2.

Zverev is currently in eighth place in the Race, as he is pushing to compete in the season finale for the third consecutive year. The German impressively bagelled good friend Andrey Rublev in the first set of their third-round match, eventually triumphing in straight sets,

“I think it was very good tennis, but I know against Roger it’s going to be very, very difficult,” Zverev said. “He’s going to try to different things and it’s going to be a difficult match.”

Federer, a two-time Shanghai champion, is trying to take a 4-3 lead in his rivalry with Zverev, who ousted the Swiss superstar in the semi-finals of last year’s Nitto ATP Finals. Federer is also trying to make the last four of a tournament for the first time since Wimbledon.

Medvedev and Fognini have split their two previous meetings. And while Medvedev has already booked his London spot, Fognini is trying to compete on the singles court at The O2 for the first time, and a victory against the Russian would catapult him into the Top 10 in the Race.

“I think it’s the worst player that I can play at the moment, because he changed completely in the summer. Of course he was also great before, but he made an unbelievable change during the U.S. swing, and he’s dangerous. He’s really dangerous,” Fognini said. “He’s really comfortable inside the court. But I’m here to try to complicate [the match for] him, try to take my chances, have the chance. If not, I fly home.”

The final singles match of the day pits last week’s Beijing winner, Dominic Thiem, against another London hopeful in Matteo Berrettini in what promises to be a big-hitting match. Thiem won their only previous match at Roland Garros last year on clay, his favourite surface.

One year ago, Berrettini lost in Shanghai qualifying as the World No. 54. Now he is No. 13 in the ATP Rankings and in contention for a spot in the Nitto ATP Finals. If the Italian beats the Austrian and Zverev loses to Federer, Berrettini will climb into seventh spot in the Race.

Did You Know?
In the doubles draw, defending champions Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo can qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals with a victory against Cincinnati champions Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek.

In a lot of ways, Roger Federer is very unlike the millions of us who have smartphones. The 38-year-old has won 102 tour-level titles and earned more $127 million in prize money.

In other ways, however, he is exactly like us: He, too, enjoys social media but seeks to limit his screen time, especially when he’s around loved ones.

That’s why Federer takes breaks from social media. For instance, from 5 July to 16 September – a 10-week stretch – he tweeted zero times.

“I took a nice break after Wimbledon, because I was spending a lot of time with the family,” Federer said. “I was just tired.”

From 24 September to 1 October, he also posted zero times, not even sharing goofy photos or retweeting witty comments from fans.

But the 28-time ATP Masters 1000 champion, upon hitting the road again, ramped up his tweeting and has continued this week at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, where he will face Alexander Zverev on Friday for a place in the semi-finals.

“It’s the energy level and obviously being around my kids. [I] try to be good role model [by] not having my phone in my hand the whole time,” Federer said. “My kids are not here, so they don’t read the press, so they don’t know I’m on the phone. I have always enjoyed interacting through social media with the fans.”

Watch that video of me speaking ok maybe yelling to @AlexZverev before the super breaker ??
Let’s gooooo https://t.co/JsjqczSZNh

— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) October 5, 2019

Federer has been doing plenty of that since 2 October, when he tweeted or retweeted posts 25 times. He’s retweeted photos of himself with fans, tried to pump up students before exams and applauded some of his colleagues, including Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, who on Wednesday clinched the year-end No. 1 ATP Doubles Team Ranking for the first time.

Congrats guys, amazing season so far and it’s not even over!!!? https://t.co/iyzE4xuIBV

— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) October 9, 2019

“I always said, and I swore to myself, I will never start on social media if I have to post every day two times. That’s just not the idea for me. Even though people say that’s what you’ve got to do, but I don’t care what I have to do because I’m not on social media to make money or anything,” Federer said.

“I’m just there to have fun with the fans and it’s fun to interact. I have been doing it when I’m on the massage table or hanging out in the morning and not doing anything besides just having good conversations with my team.”

@rogerfederer 8 years between those pictures ? pic.twitter.com/Pb6yhQ1DDK

— Camelia (@itscameliaaa) October 5, 2019

His social media strategy, if you will, seems to have worked out OK. Federer (@rogerfederer) currently has 12.7 million followers on Twitter, four million more than Novak Djokovic (@djokernole) but three million fewer than Rafael Nadal (@rafaelnadal).

? https://t.co/3kYUDI86mV

— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) October 9, 2019

Federer is pursuing his 29^th Masters 1000 title, which would draw him closer to his two long-time rivals on the all-time Masters 1000 titles leaderboard. But will Federer be tweeting as the season’s penultimate Masters 1000 event heads into the weekend?

“Now my parents are here, so probably that’s going to slow down just a little bit because I want to spend quality time with them,” Federer said. “So social media goes again probably on the side a little bit for the rest of the week.”

Do your homework, kids. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic showed how important that is in his third-round victory Thursday against John Isner at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

Isner reached the 1,000-ace mark for the sixth time in his career with his second ace of the match. But it was the number of aces top-seeded Djokovic allowed the American to blast by him that was the story of the match.

Djokovic matched Isner’s nine aces in his 7-5, 6-3 victory against the World No. 17 to reach the Shanghai quarter-finals.

“It’s always a big challenge returning the serve of Isner. He’s got one of the biggest serves of all-time. He’s one of the tallest guys ever to play tennis. Obviously with that height, [his] serve is a huge weapon and huge advantage,” Djokovic said. “I managed to read his serve and find a good position on the return [at the] end of the first set and also [at the] beginning of the second.”

Djokovic now leads Isner 10-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, and in seven of their 10 matches outside of Davis Cup, Isner has failed to strike at least 10 aces. The American has averaged more than 18 aces per match in his career.

“Of course I do my homework and I talk with my coaches and understand what his pattern is, what his favourite angles or serves are, if there are some,” Djokovic said. “He can hit any serve at any angle with any pace and any rotation.”

That homework has paid off for Djokovic, who won 42 per cent of his first-serve return points against Isner in Shanghai. Isner won an average of 83 per cent of his first-serve points in his two victories before falling to Djokovic.

“I expected him to go more for the second serves, which was the case, but I didn’t expect him to not make a single double fault and really hit every second serve over 200. That was really impressive,” said Djokovic, who only won 27 per cent of his second-serve return points. “But still, I was very pleased with the way I returned. I returned a lot of balls back and just made him play.”

Djokovic has won seven consecutive matches to start the Asian Swing, including his 76th tour-level title at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships last week. The Serbian has not dropped a set in those triumphs. After retiring in the fourth round of the US Open due to a shoulder injury, Djokovic didn’t feel there was a glaring hole in his game he had to address.

“There are always some fundamental things to work on in the game that keep on repeating. It’s necessary to train in order to feel well, to feel confident, to feel that you’re striking the ball nicely,” Djokovic said. “The main priority was for me to be healthy and try to rehab, go through rehabilitation process of the shoulder in the best possible way, because I didn’t know whether I’m going to be able to play Asia or not. I’m just happy that my shoulder has been holding on and not causing me any pain.”