Aleksandar Vukic defeated world number 9 Casper Ruud in the second round of the Rolex Shanghai Masters to enter the top 10 for the first time.
Shanghai, China, October 5, 2024 | Vivien Christie
“Watch out for the preliminaries” is a phrase often used in professional tennis. Aleksandar Vukic showed why at the Rolex Shanghai Masters in China.
After a career-best performance at Asia’s biggest ATP tournament, the world No.91 Sydneysider stunned No.8 seed Casper Ruud to advance to the third round.
This marks Vukic’s fourth successive win at an ATP Masters 1000 event, with the Australian progressing past the qualifiers and into the main draw. He defeated another qualifier, Canada’s Gabriel Diallo, to set up a high-profile meeting with Ruud.
In his final match of the night on the Qi Zhong Tennis Center Stadium Court on Friday, Vukic kept his composure to cruise to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ruud in one hour and 19 minutes.
Biggest win ever
Qualifier Aleksander Vukic recorded his first ever top 10 win, defeating 8th seed Casper Ruud 6-4 6-4!#Rolex Shanghai Masters pic.twitter.com/5nEfqCTdH1
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 4, 2024
“It was a very tough game, but I was playing well so I didn’t want to change too much,” the 28-year-old Sydneysider said, noting the importance of maintaining a winning routine.
“(I wanted to) stick to my game plan and take it to Casper. “I think I did a good job.”
Vukic dominated from the start against the two-time Grand Slam finalist, capitalizing on his first break point opportunity in the seventh game and converting again on his next opportunity early in the second set.
“I am very proud of myself. “I played very well,” he said. “It was very clean. It doesn’t happen often that you get two out of two (breakpoints). Sometimes it’s 0 out of 10. So I accept it and am very satisfied.”
Vukic, who registered seven aces among a total of 28 winners, held his nerve most importantly as he faced three break points late in the second set.
“I was very nervous, which is normal,” he said. “I played some good points and tried to get that out of my system. “He grumbled a little more and served well when needed.”
Vukic loved his serve and wrapped up the win, sealing an eye-catching victory on the first match point.
A third-round meeting is scheduled with World No. 33 Czech Tomas Machak, who defeated Vukic in their only match last year in Vienna.
Fellow Australians Alexei Popyrin and Jordan Thompson, seeded 20 and 26 respectively, will begin their Rolex Shanghai Masters campaigns on Saturday.
Porphyrin turns 55Day-Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic and Thompson face World No. 40 Tallon Greeksoort from the Netherlands.
