Federer, Djokovic into Shanghai quarters

SHANGHAI, China (AP):

Roger Federer saved five set points in the first set as he scrambled to a 7-6 (7), 6-4 win over 13th-seeded David Goffin yesterday and advanced to the Shanghai Masters quarterfinals.

Second-seeded Federer holds a 10-1 winning record against Goffin, including all three matches they have played this year.

Despite the outcome, Federer didn’t feel in control of their Round-of-16 game.

“I never really felt like I had the upper hand over David today,” Federer said. “I thought he took really a lot of good decisions, and he was super fast on his feet today, which I think made it really hard for me to get my freebies and winners off the baseline.”

Federer will play fifth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany today in the quarterfinals.

Zverev beat Andrey Rublev of Russia 6-0, 7-6 (4) in the last match of the night. The German served for the match at 5-3 in the second set but couldn’t nail down the victory until the tiebreaker.

Earlier, John Isner served his 1,000th ace of the season, but it wasn’t enough to stop defending champion Novak Djokovic from advancing with a 7-5, 6-3 win. Isner’s nine aces against Djokovic took him to 1,007 for the year.

Top-seeded Djokovic is on a 24-0 sets winning streak in Asia dating back to last year’s Shanghai Masters. He won his inaugural appearance at the Japan Open last week without losing a set.

“It’s always a big challenge returning the serve,” Djokovic said. “He’s got one of the biggest serves of all time.”

Djokovic will play sixth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in the quarterfinals. Tsitsipas defeated Hubert Hurkacz of Poland 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (5).