Jannik Sinner and Casper Rudd both out at Rolex Shanghai Masters

The fourth round of the Rolex Shanghai Masters are underway and Tuesday saw some excellent matchups and a couple of surprises. Casper Ruud, who really has been struggling since the Hamburg Open in July, was upset in three sets by Hungarian Fabian Marozsan 7-6(3) 3-6 6-4. Meanwhile, Jannik Sinner did not play poorly and still lost to Ben Shelton 6-2 3-6 7-6(5).

The Ruud and Marozsan match was magnificently close. By the end, just two total points separated the two players as Marozsan won 119 points and Ruud won 117. Ruud had a booming serve for most of the match and finished with 14 aces, but when Maroszan had the chance to take advantage of Ruud’s second serve, he did.

Maroszan won 21 of 38 points on Ruud’s second serve which did not have good placement throughout and allowed Maroszan to hammer his forehand. Maroszan has been playing excellently lately, however, and had not lost a set in the tournament until Ruud took the second set. Then Maroszan had to save two break points to serve out the victory.

Maroszan isn’t new to upsetting top-ten players, though. He defeated Carlos Alcaraz – ranked No. 2 at the time – in the Rome Masters in May. So maybe beating ATP No. 9 Ruud wasn’t as difficult? (I joke.)

Shaghai Masters update: Jannik Sinner and Casper Ruud both lose in the fourth round

Meanwhile, Jannik Sinner was simply beaten by a player who outlasted him in Ben Shelton. The Italian has better hand skills than Shelton does currently, but Shelton can bang away with the best. The best bit about the match is it featured a look at the future of tennis. Jannik Sinner is just 22 years old while Ben Shelton just turned 21 years old.

Shelton hasn’t yet won an ATP-level tournament but over the last several months he has been playing some of the best tennis of his life. He made it to the semifinals at the US Open before falling to Novak Djokovic. His thunderous serve is enough to defeat even the best of players and against Sinner 38 of his 97 serves could not be returned by Sinner.

Shelton also held his cool after winning the first four points in the third set tie-break before Jannik Sinner won the next five. The American was able to hold his next two serve points before hitting a 101 MPH (163 KMH) forehand when Sinner had his chance to hold. He couldn’t, however, and now Ben Shelton is onto the quarterfinals at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.