The quarter-finals of the 2026 Shanghai Masters concluded Friday, with Rafael Jodar producing his fourth consecutive comeback win to defeat Casper Ruud and become the tournament’s youngest semi-finalist.
The 20-year-old Spaniard recovered from a set down once again, moving into the final ATP Finals qualification spot in the live Race to Turin with just a few weeks of the season remaining.
Elsewhere, Daniil Medvedev overcame a second-set collapse to defeat Tommy Paul in three sets, reaching his third Shanghai semi-final and strengthening his own ATP Finals qualification chances.
Jodar and Medvedev will meet in Sunday’s semi-finals, with both players aiming for their first Shanghai final of the season.
See the full Day Ten results and quarter-final recaps below.
Day Ten Shanghai Masters Quarter-Final Results
Quarter-Final Recap
Rafael Jodar Def. Casper Ruud 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
Rafael Jodar showed his mettle again with a fourth consecutive comeback win, defeating Casper Ruud in two hours and 20 minutes to reach the semi-finals.
The 20-year-old Spaniard has now recovered from a set down against Thiago Agustin Tirante, Jiri Lehecka, Botic van de Zandschulp and Ruud, which is pretty uncommon for a “young gun” supposedly just getting his foot on the ladder of the tour.
Ruud took the opening set 6-4 after breaking serve in the 10th game, and when he recovered an early break in the second to level at 2-2, it looked as though he might finally put an end to Jodar’s run.
However, the Spaniard has a habit of sorting his game out, and he gradually took control of the baseline exchanges, using his powerful forehand to push Ruud around the court.
Jodar broke again at 4-4 and then served out the second set to love to force a decider.
From there, he was the stronger player, breaking Ruud’s serve three times in the third set to complete another impressive comeback.
I thought Ruud played ok in the first set, but that was more due to Jodar’s poor execution rather than Norwegian taking control.
Once Jodar settled, he was far more dominant, and Ruud doesn’t seem able to really dictate with his serve + forehand to pick up some easy points.
I think it was a very close match. Casper played the important points in the first set better than me. I couldn’t win the break points because of his serve, so I knew I wanted to come back again.
The victory has moved him into ninth place in the live Race to Turin, ahead of Novak Djokovic and Alex de Minaur.
With Jannik Sinner ruled out for the remainder of the season, ninth place is effectively the final ATP Finals qualification spot, so Jodar has put himself in a strong position to make his debut at the year-end event.
I’m super happy how the season is going. Very high level, but still a lot of things to improve, which is very good because that means I can become a better player in the future.
Match Stats
Highlights
Daniil Medvedev Def. Tommy Paul 6-3, 1-6, 6-3
Daniil Medvedev reached his third Shanghai Masters semi-final with a three-set win over Tommy Paul, recovering from a poor second set to win 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in 2 hours and 9 minutes.
The Russian started well, taking the opening set 6-3, but his level dropped considerably in the second as Paul raced through it 6-1.
Medvedev didn’t play particularly badly, but Paul went on a bit of a tear-up and seemed to seize momentum completely.
However, the decider was a different story.
Paul started the set with a very weak service game, allowing Medvedev to regroup, improve his serving, and begin to dominate the longer baseline exchanges, forcing errors and making it increasingly difficult for the American to finish points.
Paul managed just 47% of his first serves in the final set and committed 17 unforced errors, which was a huge drop-off from his second-set numbers.
I think today I was a tiny bit off from time to time but the third set was great. Even the second set was 6-1, but I made him work and I was tired at the end of the set myself. I managed to regroup myself and serve better in the third and get the win.
Medvedev has now won five of his six meetings with Paul and remains the only former Shanghai champion in the draw, having lifted the trophy in 2019.
The win has also moved Medvedev to sixth in the live Race to Turin with 3,420 points, giving him a useful cushion over the players chasing the final qualification spots.
Match Stats
Highlights
Shanghai Masters Day 11 Semi-Final Matches
- (1) Alexander Zverev vs (25) Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
- (12) Rafael Jodar vs (5) Daniil Medvedev
