Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime faced a 6-3, 6-4 defeat by France’s Arthur Rinderknech in the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters on Friday. Auger-Aliassime, seeded 12th, served eight aces but struggled with three double faults, all occurring in the initial set. Rinderknech, currently ranked 54th globally, dominated with an 83% first-serve points win rate, outperforming Auger-Aliassime’s 64%. The French player broke Auger-Aliassime once in each set and successfully defended all three break points against him.
Rinderknech secured his third consecutive victory over a top-20 opponent in Shanghai, culminating in a one-hour and 28-minute match. Meanwhile, in China, Bianca Andreescu from Mississauga, Ont., and her partner Yue Yuan of China were ousted in the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the Wuhan Open, losing 6-4, 7-6 (1) to Aleksandra Krunic and Anna Danilina. Novak Djokovic from Serbia is set to face Valentin Vacherot from Monaco in the other semifinal showdown.
At the Wuhan Open, Aryna Sabalenka continued her impressive run with a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over eighth-seeded Elena Rybakina on Friday, extending her winning streak to 20 matches. The reigning U.S. Open champion, Sabalenka, who claimed victory at the Wuhan Open in 2018, ’19, and last year, broke Rybakina’s serve three times in the 1-hour, 25-minute match. This win marked Sabalenka’s 11th semifinal appearance this season, where she acknowledged the crowd with waves and blown kisses.
Sabalenka is set to face Jessica Pegula in the semifinals, who secured a 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 victory against Katerina Siniakova earlier on Friday. Pegula, who has been consistently pushed to a third set in her past seven matches, recently defeated No. 9 Ekaterina Alexandrova and American Hailey Baptiste. In the other quarterfinal matches, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff were scheduled to compete against Jasmine Paolini and Laura Siegemund, respectively.
