World number one Jannik Sinner advanced to the China Open Semifinals with a 6-2, 7-6 (6) victory over Jiri Lehecka.
As the World Anti-Doping Agency sought a two-year ban on the Italian, Sinner faced two set points at 4-6 in the second set tiebreak, but found a way to close out his 14th consecutive victory and advance to a semi-final against the favorite local Bu Yunchaokete, who is number 96 in the ranking.
“I’m very happy with how I handled a difficult situation,” Sinner said. “I feel like I can still improve a couple of things here, so hopefully tomorrow is the day I feel better on the court.”
Carlos Alcaraz broke into the top four for the second year in a row after an impressive 7-5, 6-2 victory against Karen Khachanov.
The 21-year-old Spaniard was characteristically ruthless from the baseline and took advantage of the service games of the 27th-ranked Khachanov, converting four of 12 service break opportunities to win in 96 minutes.
“I always try to put a little pressure when they are serving to tell them in a certain way that I am going to be there,” Alcaraz said.
“If they want to win the service game or beat me, they have to accept the battle and play really good tennis. “For me, that’s what I try to show them all the time.”
It was Alcaraz’s 46th win of the season and allowed the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion to once again overtake the absent Alexander Zverev into second place in the live ATP rankings.
Alcaraz will face Daniil Medvedev in the next phase, after the Russian, fifth ranked, defeated the Italian Flavio Cobolli 6-2, 6-4.
Medvedev is still searching for his first title of the year, making 16 fewer unforced errors than Cobolli and converting four of his eight break point opportunities to close out a solid victory in 88 minutes.
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