SHANGHAI
\nDaniil Medvedev overcame a wobble to beat a fighting Tommy Paul on Friday and reach the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, setting up a showdown with rising star Rafael Jodar.
\nAt age 20, the Spaniard is the youngest player to reach the Shanghai semi-finals since the tournament\u2019s inaugural edition in 2009.
\nMedvedev, the 2019 Shanghai champion, overcame inconsistent serving to beat Paul 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
\nThe 30-year-old saved seven break points to hold back the American in a marathon sixth game, giving little away as he broke to take the first set when Paul fired long.
\nBut the 18th-ranked Paul returned inspired in the second set, displaying fantastic defence as Medvedev drove him around the court.
\nHe was rewarded when Medvedev double-faulted twice in a must-win game to tumble into a decider.
\nThe Russian, ranked sixth, cruised to a 2-0 lead in the third set and carried that momentum to the end, breaking again to win on his second match point.
\nEarlier, 13th-ranked Jodar beat Norway\u2019s Casper Ruud 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 \u2014 recovering from a set down for the fourth time in a row this week.
\nBoth players were tested but held serve to start with until Ruud capitalised on a break point, taking the first set with a searing forehand into the corner.
\nBut Jodar\u2019s brilliance shone through, dazzling the crowd with a gorgeous over-the-shoulder smash in the fourth game of the second set.
\nDespite losing that game, the Spaniard held his nerve and won a crucial break point to go up 5-4 before closing out the set at the first time of asking.
\nRuud, ranked 24th, saved three match points in the third set but double-faulted to hand Jodar victory.
\n\u201cCasper is a very tough player,\u201d Jodar said afterwards. \u201cI had to give my best level today to win this match.\u201d
\nTop seed Alexander Zverev faces Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the other semi-final on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SHANGHAI Daniil Medvedev overcame a wobble to beat a fighting Tommy Paul on Friday and reach the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, setting up a showdown with rising star Rafael Jodar. At age 20, the Spaniard is the youngest player to reach the Shanghai semi-finals since the tournament\u2019s inaugural edition in 2009. Medvedev, the 2019 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":104466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104477,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104452\/revisions\/104477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}