David Goffin achieved the feat of bringing down world No.3 Alexander Zverev in the round of 16 of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Shanghai ($8,995,555) on Wednesday. The Liégeois, 66th in the world, claimed the scalp of the German, seeded N.2, after two sets, 6-4, 7-5. The game lasted 1 hour and 56 minutes.
This is David Goffin’s first victory against a top 10 ATP player since October 4, 2022, in Astana, Kazakhstan. He then beat the world No.1 at the time, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, in the first round of the ATP 500. Goffin occupied at that time exactly the same ranking as today, 66th place.
The Belgian N.1 will now face the American Taylor Fritz (ATP 7/N.7). The recent finalist of the US Open, who is coming off a failure in the first round in Tokyo, swept aside the Dane Holger Rune (ATP 14/N.12) in the round of 16, 6-1, 6-2.
On the hard court in Shanghai, David Goffin was particularly threatening against Zverev in the first set, converting two of his six opportunities to take off.
In the second round, he regained a break in advance but was caught at 4-4. The Liégeois seemed to lose his footing at times, even giving up a set point to his opponent, but he also offered very high level tennis in sequences.
Aggressive and relaxed, Goffin dismissed the set point in favor of Zverev. From there, he won 11 of the remaining 12 points to claim victory. This allows him a first appearance in the quarter-finals of a Masters 1000 since Monte-Carlo in 2021, where he lost to the Briton Daniel Evans.
