The number one and two seeds, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and the Russian Daniil Medvedev, qualified on Monday for the semi-finals of the ATP 500 tournament in Beijing, where they will respectively meet the Italian Jannik Sinner and the German Alexander Zverev.
Alcaraz dismissed Casper Ruud (7th in the world) in two sets (6-4, 6-2) to head to the last four in the Chinese capital where he will face Sinner for the seventh time, winner of Dimitrov in three sets (6-4 , 3-6, 6-2). In this face-to-face match, the tie is perfect: each has won three matches.
In the other half of the table, the Russian Medvedev defeated the Frenchman Ugo Humbert, 36th in the world, who still managed to grab the second set against the world No.3, but ultimately lost in three sets. (6-4, 3-6, 6-1) in just over two hours of play.
Medvedev, who won his 41st victory of the season on hard court, blamed the poor quality of the balls used in Beijing for the difficulties he had in getting rid of the Frenchman.
“It’s very slow,” he said at a press conference. “On any other hard court with normal balls, there is no chance I would win the match like that. No chance of me losing my service at this point.”
“It’s great to have still managed to find moments of consistency in this difficult match, which was enough to win,” he added.
In the semi-final, his 10th of the season, Medvedev will face No.10 Alexander Zverev, who beat Chilean Nicolas Jarry, 23rd, in three sets (6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 ).
Medvedev, winner nine times over Zverev in 16 meetings, will still have to be wary of the German who remains on a very good run with two titles won, one in Hamburg in July and one in Chengdu last week.