Shanghai, Oct 11: Shanghai Masters top seed Carlos Alcaraz fought through what he called “one of the toughest matches this year” to make the tournament’s final 16 on Monday, beating Britain’s Daniel Evans 7-6 (7/1), 6-4. The Spaniard is the only one of the tournament’s top four seeds left after Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece crashed out in a late-night match to France’s Ugo Humbert 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Alcaraz’ nearly two-and-a-half-hour match was ferociously physical, with 33rd-ranked Evans giving as good as he got, leading at one point by three games in the first set. But over the course of prolonged and sometimes scrappy rallies that left spectators gasping and groaning, the world number two gradually assumed control, comprehensively winning the first-set tiebreaker.
“That was probably one of the toughest matches I’ve played this year,” said the 20-year-old Alcaraz after the match.