Jannik Sinner advances to Paris qualifier for first time to face Ben Shelton | ATP Tour
match report
Sinner advances to Paris qualifying for the first time and will next face Shelton
Italy have won their last 23 indoor matches
October 30, 2025
Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
Jannik Sinner competes in Paris on Thursday.
Sam Jacott
Jannik Sinner advanced to the quarter-finals for the first time at the Rolex Paris Masters on Thursday, beating Francisco Cerundolo 7-5, 6-1 to keep alive his hopes of returning to the top of the PIF ATP Rankings.
The Italian moved tentatively between sets at times in the first set and flexed his right leg, but never called for a medical timeout during the 86-minute match. The second seed blasted 12 winners in the first set and made just two unforced errors to take the lead, then won 10 minutes into the second set, breaking Cerundolo’s serve and hitting a forehand winner on the match’s second break point. From that moment on, Sinner was racing toward victory.
“I broke serve twice in the first set but I couldn’t convert,” Sinner said. “I put myself in a difficult situation but I’m happy with the way I ended the game and I feel a lot better. Hopefully that gives me the confidence to start in a good way tomorrow. Hopefully I can recover physically, that’s my priority. It was a good game today and my performance was great.”
With the win, Sinner became the first Italian to reach the quarterfinals in all nine ATP Masters 1000 events. The 24-year-old has won the Masters 1,000 meters in Miami, Canada, Cincinnati and Shanghai.
Sinner, who leads Cerundolo 4-2 in the Lexus ATP Head2Head Series, has won his last 23 indoor matches and is still hoping to capitalize on Carlos Alcaraz’s early defeat in Paris in his bid for world number one: if the Italian can lift his first Masters 1000 title of the season next Monday, he can return to the top.
Sinner will next face Ben Shelton after the American defeated Andrei Rublev 7-6(6), 6-3. Both Shelton and Sinner will compete in next month’s Nitto ATP Finals.
Shelton defeated Sinner in Shanghai in 2023, but lost the next six games and never won a set in any match. Americans hope to change that record on Friday.
Elsewhere, Daniil Medvedev stayed in contention for the Nitto ATP Finals with a hard-fought victory over Lorenzo Sonego 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4. The 29-year-old, who finished 13th at the PIF ATP Live event in Turin, must win the title in Paris to have a chance to compete in Turin next month.
Medvedev won his first trophy in 882 days in Almaty in October and has also reached the semifinals in Beijing and Shanghai in recent weeks. Entering his 25th Masters 1000m quarter-final, Medvedev will next face either Alexander Zverev or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
