TASS, October 11. Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas (seed No. 6) has pulled an upset and ousted World No. 1 Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in their quarterfinal match at the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Rolex Shanghai Masters. The tournament offers around $7.5 million in prize money.
The 21-year-old Greek snatched the victory 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, winning his second encounter in three tries against Djokovic. Tsitsipas is set to play Russian Daniil Medvedev (seed No. 3), who earlier defeated Italy’s Fabio Fognini (10) in their quarterfinal match in straight sets, for a spot in the final.
Medvedev and Tsitsipas played each other four times, with the Russian winning all four encounters. Medvedev played the Greek once this year, triumphing in their third round match at Monte Carlo Masters.
Tsitsipas is ranked at No. 7 in the ATP rankings and has three titles to his name. Medvedev’s victory over Fognini means that the Greek has officially qualified for the ATP Finals, a prestigious tournament pitting eight best tennis players against each other at the end of the season in London on November 10-17.
Djokovic boasts 16 Grand Slam singles titles — he is a seven-time Australian Open champion, five-time Wimbledon champion, three-time US Open champion and one-time French Open champion. He has also won bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Serbian dominates the ATP rankings and has 76 ATP titles to his name.
The Shanghai Masters runs for a week and is scheduled to complete on October 13. The winner will receive $1,375 million and 1000 ranking points, while the finalist will bag $696,000 and 600 points. Djokovic failed to defend his 2018 title here, seeking his first hardcourt Masters title of the year, while previous winners of the tournament include Russian Nikolay Davydenko (2009).