Alex de Minaur says he is getting better every day after moving into the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters with a victory that has also moved him above Novak Djokovic in the ATP Race to Turin.

The ninth seed roared his way to a 6-3, 6-4 win over US Open semi-finalist Karen Khachanov with the help of some impressive serving. De Minaur won 80% of his first-serve points and hit 22 winners without being broken. The victory has moved him into the last eight of a Masters event for only the second time this year after Monte Carlo.

Since the US Open, de Minaur has won seven out of eight singles matches played at ATP events, including one at the Laver Cup. His only defeat came in the China Open final, which he was forced to retire from after the first set due to a groin injury. At the time, doubts were cast over the Australian’s ability to play in Shanghai, but he has recovered quickly.

“It’s been feeling better and better every single day,” he said.

“It’s been seven to eight days since that match, and there’s been a lot of focus on the recovery aspect of it. I’ve been doing everything in my power to feel better each and every day. Today was by far the best day.

“I had to complement that with some great tennis and great serving and some smart tactics. All in all, I thought it was a very clean match, which I’m very happy with.” He added.

De Minaur is currently in ninth place in the Race to Turin, which is the last automatic qualifying place. Second-place Jannik Sinner isn’t playing at the event after ending his season early due to injury.

The 27-year-old is the fourth Australian player to reach 10 or more Masters 1000 quarter-finals since the series began. The others are Lleyton Hewitt (23), Pat Rafter (13) and Mark Philippoussis (10).

De Minaur will play either top seed Alexander Zverev or Alexander Bublik in the next round.

Elsewhere at the tournament, French underdog Arthur Gea continued his dream run with a 7-6(4), 6-4 win over worldNo. 15 Jakub Mensik. Gea has already beaten three seeded players in the tournament, including Ugo Humbert and Ben Shelton. He is currently 4-1 against top 20 players.

“I’m really happy about the result. I had a little revenge today, because at the US Open I stopped in this round,” he told atptour.com.

“I wanted to go far this week, and obviously now it’s starting to be good. I hope it’s going to continue.”

Gea won his maiden ATP title during the summer at the Los Cabos Open and has won nine out of 11 main draw matches since then. He is currently ranked 56th in the world but will soon break into the top 50 after his run in Shanghai.

He will next play either Alejandro Davidovich Fokina or Hubert Hurkacz.