Zverev beats De Minaur 6-4, 6-4 to reach Shanghai Masters semi-finals

Alexander Zverev beat Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-4 in 78 minutes on Thursday 15 October to reach the Shanghai Masters semi-finals. The top seed will play Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Saturday for a place in the final, according to the ATP Tour.

How Zverev won

Zverev saved three break points in the first set and broke in the fifth game, then served it out in the 10th. He broke again in the seventh game of the second set and closed on his first match point. The ATP reported that he won 80 per cent of his first-serve points (35 of 44) and hit 10 aces. AFP, carried by ARY News, quoted him as "very satisfied" and said the level was a big step up from his previous two matches, both of which went to three sets.

This is Zverev's third Shanghai semi-final, the ATP said.

Who he plays next

Davidovich Fokina, seeded 25th, is through to his fourth Masters 1000 semi-final after France's Arthur Gea retired from their quarter-final. Gea was trailing 4-1 in the first set. The ATP gave the cause as a psoas injury, while AFP described a muscle problem in the lower back, so we are calling it simply an injury.

Both quarter-finals on the Zverev side of the draw were scheduled on Thursday: Gea against Davidovich Fokina not before 14:30 and Zverev against De Minaur not before 18:00, local time in Shanghai. Pakistan is three hours behind China, so that evening match was due at about 3pm PKT.

The other half of the draw

The Thursday result above is the only pair of quarter-finals we could confirm. The other two were set after Wednesday's last-16 matches:

• Daniil Medvedev v Tommy Paul. Medvedev beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 7-5, and Paul beat Zizou Bergs 7-6(5), 6-4.
• Rafael Jodar v Casper Ruud. Jodar beat Botic van de Zandschulp 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2, and Ruud advanced when Felix Auger-Aliassime retired at 5-2 in the first set, per the ATP's results page.

We had not found results for those two matches when this story was published. We will update this page with the full semi-final line-up and the PKT start times once the ATP publishes the order of play. Our earlier report on Medvedev's win is here.

Alcaraz heads to Vienna after Six Kings Slam postponement

Separately, Carlos Alcaraz will play the Vienna Open, the Erste Bank Open, after the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Riyadh was pushed back. Tournament director Herwig Straka confirmed the appearance on Thursday, according to a Tennis Watcher report. Alcaraz is due to start on Tuesday 27 October at the Wiener Stadthalle, and the tournament runs to 1 November. It is his first Vienna appearance since 2021.

The Six Kings Slam has been moved from 21, 22 and 24 October to 27-30 December, as we reported in our Six Kings Slam story. The stated reason was logistical. The report linked the change to the Houthi attack on Riyadh's airport.

Tennis fans in Pakistan can follow the draw and scores on the ATP's live scores page. We have not found a confirmed Pakistan broadcaster for the Masters.