Medvedev Continues His Winning Habit At Shanghai Masters

Daniil Medvedev
Daniil Medvedev (photo: Rolex Shanghai Masters)

SHANGHAI/WASHINGTON, October 16, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)

Daniil Medvedev, the only former Rolex Shanghai Masters champion remaining in the field, extended his winning ways in China this year with his latest victory on Friday.

The 2019 Shanghai champion from Russia, seeded fifth, improved to 11-1 with his 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 victory No. 15 seed Tommy Paul of the United States, the last of 12 Americans who began playing in China’s most-populous city last week.

Now, Medvedev will face No. 12 seed Rafael Jodar of Spain, who earlier went the distance and defeated No. 20 seed Casper Ruud of Norway, in Saturday’s semifinal round. World No. 2 and top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany will oppose No. 25 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain in the other semifinal. The two semifinals will meet for the Shanghai title on Sunday afternoon.

Following his Hangzhou title and run to the Beijing semifinal, Medvedev has dropped just two sets during the penultimate ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai. By reaching the last four, Medvedev is through to his 70th tour-level semifinal overall and he’s tied Tomas Berdych and Lleyton Hewitt for ninth-most ATP Masters 1000 semifinals in series history with 19. 

Medvedev’s victory over Paul, which he completed in two hours and eight minutes was his fifth in sixth meetings.

“I think, with Medvedev, we’ve had some good matches and some bad matches,” Paul said this week, after beating No. 39 Zizou Bergs of Belgium in the round of 16 on Wednesday.

“I think he’s a guy that you have to come in with a game plan, and it has to be a good game plan, because he’s not going to miss many balls, and he’s going to make you earn every single point. I’m going to have to come with the mindset to be out there all day, and also really execute my game plan.”

Unfortunately for Paul, although he made a nice comeback in the second set after dropping the first, Medvedev grabbed an early break in the decider, took advantage of 17 unforced errors in the final set and rode it to his 34th hard-court win of the season and 45th victory overall. He remains alive in his chase for a fourth ATP Tour title in 2026 – and seventh ATP Masters 1000 crown overall. 

Medvedev struck 31 winners – including 16 aces – and converted four of 12 break points. He outpointed Paul 94-88.

“I think today I was a tiny bit off from time to time but the third set was great,” Medvedev said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “Even the second set was 6-1, but I made him work and I was tired at the end of the set myself. I managed to regroup myself and serve better in the third and get the win, which is a great feeling.”

On Saturday, Medvedev will face Jodar for the first time. “He has a great game,” the Russian No. 1 said. “He hits very strong, so it is going to be fun to see it in real life, to get the feel. If I am playing well, I am tough to beat and that is what I am going to try to do.”

Jodar reaches first ATP Masters 1000 final …

World No. 13 Rafael Jodar earned his fourth-straight victory in his Shanghai debut after coming from a set down. On Friday afternoon, the 20-year-old Spaniard overcame No. 20 seed Casper Ruud, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, in two hours and 20 minutes on Stadium Court to advance to his first ATP Masters 1000 final.

The 12th-seeded Jodar broke Ruud’s serve a total of five times across the second and third sets – and proved to be a difference maker. By the end, Jodar had become the youngest semifinalist in event history.

“I was feeling great on court,” Jodar said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “I think it was a very close match. Casper, I think, played the important points in the first set better than me. I couldn’t win the break points because of his serve, so I knew I wanted to come back again. It was very tough, so I had to give my best level today to win this match.”

Jodar won 75 percent (40 of 53) of his first-serve points, hit 28 winners to 31 unforced errors, saved four of seven break points and converted five of 15 break points. He outpointed Ruud 103-87.

“I’m super happy how the season is going,” Jodar said. “Very high level, but still a lot of things to improve, which is very good because that means I can become a better player in the future. I just want more things. It’s the first year on Tour and there are still a few tournaments, so I will try to give my best in the matches I have left this season.”

With his 42nd victory in his first full season on the ATP Tour, Jodar jumped ahead of Novak Djokovic and into ninth place in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turn. With second-place Jannik Sinner out for the rest of the season with a knee injury, Jodar is effectively in eighth place, the final qualifying position for the Nitto ATP Finals.

… Addresses criticism over behavior towards ball kids

During Rafael Jodar‘s fourth-round win over Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands on Wednesday, he was issued a code violation by chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote for unsportsmanlike conduct after shouting an expletive in Spanish at a ball kid while asking for his towel. Afterward, Jodar’s behavior drew a lot of criticism from fans and pundits on social media.

On Friday, following Jodar’s quarterfinal win and during a mixed zone interview, the young Spaniard was given a chance to respond to the criticisms leveled against him. He owned up to his mistake and accepted responsibility for his actions.

 

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“Yeah, it was my mistake. After the match, I thought about it, and I shouldn’t have done that to the ball kid. It was my mistake,” Jodar said.

“I respect a lot the ball kids and the umpires in the match, in all the matches and all the tournaments. I shouldn’t have treated the ball kid the way I did.

“I was very frustrated because how the match was going for me. It was a very close point. And, yeah, I didn’t mean to hurt the feelings of the ball kid or anything, I was just frustrated with me. Yeah, I couldn’t control my emotions at that point of the match.

“So, yeah, it was my mistake, and I’ll try not to do it again, because that’s not the right way to treat the ball kids. I respect a lot their job and, yeah, it wasn’t anything against him or against any ball kids or umpire.

“After what I did, I should have, you know, accepted the warning that I got because it was totally right and the umpire made the right decision.”

Jodar said if given the opportunity, he would like to apologize to the ball kid in person. 

“If I have any chance to see him here at the venue, I’ll try to tell him that I’m very sorry about my act and the way that I acted in that moment, and I’ll never do it again,” he said.

“As I am, you know, learning how to do the forehand or how to do the backhand or how to do the serve, I’m also learning how to behave on the court. There’s still a lot of things that I have to behave, so I’m not perfect, I’m a human, I make mistakes, so I’ll learn from this mistake to not do it again in the next one.”

Around the Rolex Shanghai Masters

The first doubles semifinal took place on Stadium Court Friday afternoon. No. 8 seeds Theo Arribage and Albano Olivetti of France brought a 48-21 win-loss record into their last-four match against unseeded Francisco Cabral of Portugal and JJ Tracy of the United States and had won five titles this season.

Arribage and Olivetti have lifted trophies in Auckland, Montpellier, Dallas, Halle and Mallorca. More recently, on the Asian Swing, they were semifinalists in Changdu and finalists at Tokyo. 

Meanwhile, Cabral and Tracy, who began playing as a team during the North American hard-court swing, had gone 9-5 at tour level and last month won their first title at Hangzhou.

By the end of their one-hour, 29-minute clash, it came down to a 10-point match tie-break and it was won by Cabral and Tracy. The Portuguese/American duo won the semifinal 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 to advance to Sunday’s final despite being outpointed 64-62 by Arribage and Olivetti.

“I think our goal in the second set was just keeping the energy high because in doubles anything can change very, very fast, as we saw in the first set,” Cabral said, quoted by the ATP Tour website. “Just keeping our energy high, playing good tennis, simple tennis, and chances will happen and we took them. Very, very happy.”

Added Tracy: “I think just we play with a lot of energy, and we’ve always got each other’s backs, so I think doubles is sometimes as simple as that. It’s a lot about energy, and playing smart, and I think today’s match was important for us because we won Hangzhou and haven’t played a lot from [a set down].

“We dealt with it well, and came back with a lot of energy, took the second set in the breaker. 
That was a good experience for us to have.”

The other doubles semifinal, between German duo Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner, who upset No. 1 seeds Christian Harrison of the United States and Neal Skupski of Great Britain in Thursday’s quarterfinal round, versus Lucas Miedler and Neil Oberleitner of Austria will take place on Saturday. 

Friday’s Shanghai Masters results

Saturday’s Shanghai Masters order of play

By the numbers

Alexander Zverev is in seventh place among the all-time leaders in most ATP Masters 1000 semifinals made. His total of 28 trails all-time leaders Novak Djokovic 80, Rafael Nadal 76, Roger Federer 66, Andy Murray 33, Andre Agassi 32 and Pete Sampras 31.

On Saturday, the top seed Zverev will face No. 25 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain for a berth in Sunday’s title match.

“Quotable …”

“I feel like I’ve been handling pressure quite okay this year. In a way you play a bit more relaxed, but I don’t think about it that way. Once Jannik [Sinner] unfortunately announced he won’t play for the rest of the year, I’m 4,000 points ahead of everyone else, so I trust myself enough that I’m going to win [enough matches].

“So, I wasn’t too worried about that, but I think every tournament that I’ve played this year, I had to find my range and rhythm in the first couple of matches. I feel like I did that well here and now I’m going into the semifinals.”

– World No. 2 and top seed Alexander Zverev, during his on-court interview Thursday after defeating Alex de Minaur to reach the semifinal round, on handling the pressure of ascending to ATP Year-End No. 1.

 

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