‘Surprised’ Ben Shelton battles back to make it to the last eight at the Shanghai Masters

In one of his most significant wins so far in his short career, US Open semifinalist Ben Shelton rallied from a set down to overcome sixth seed Jannik Sinner on Tuesday and advance to the Shanghai Masters last eight.

The 19th seed battled through 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) and will take on fellow American Sebastian Korda in the quarterfinals after escaping an agonizingly close fourth set.

The 20th seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina attempted a late comeback, but the 26th seed Korda held off his challenge to win 7-5, 7-6 (8/6).

Shelton, who fell to Novak Djokovic in the round of 16 last month in New York, performed his now-famous “dialed-in” celebration with an imaginary phone to celebrate his first-ever quarterfinal Masters appearance.

“I think my level of toughness and how resilient I was able to be on the court, I surprised myself a little bit,” said Shelton, who celebrated his 21st birthday on Monday.

Shelton lost the first set against Sinner, who was playing well, due to a double fault that cost him the seventh game of an error-filled opening frame.

The first set was won by the Italian Sinner, who had just won the China Open in Beijing.

Shelton showed signs of progress in the second set, capping it with an ace and a yell before putting Sinner under pressure to begin the final.

The set proceeded with serve to force a tiebreak after the 22-year-old Sinner withstood the opening assault by saving five break chances to end a game that lasted over 10 minutes.

Shelton won, and the audience who had supported him sang happy birthday to him.

Shelton just became a professional last year, making his maiden overseas participation at the Australian Open in January, when he advanced to the quarterfinals.

He has yet to fully adjust to the attention that comes with his rapidly expanding prominence.

Shelton, whose father Bryan reached number 55 in the world as a player and is now his coach, stated, “It’s something that happened quite quickly and was kind of a shock to me.”

An unexpected victory by 91st-ranked Fabian Marozsan against eighth-seeded Casper Ruud to begin the day added to the tournament’s long list of surprises.

The unseeded Hungarian won 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, and 6-4 and will now play Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, who is the 16th seed.

Daniil Medvedev, the second-seeded player, was eliminated by Korda, while Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas, the third and fourth seeds, were also eliminated.

Top seed Alcaraz, who plays 18th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the round of 16, has advanced thanks to the upsets.

Djokovic, the world’s top player, is not in China.