Thursday 10 October 2019 16:20, UK
Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have progressed into the last eight of the Rolex Shanghai Masters after respective straight sets victories.
Djokovic, the world No 1, is now on a 24-set winning streak in Asia dating back to last year's Shanghai Masters, while Federer remains on the right track for his third title at the tournament.
In order to progress into the quarter-finals, Djokovic ousted John Isner 7-5 6-3 in an hour and 14 minutes.
As is so often the case, Isner hit a wealth of aces during the encounter - nine in total - which took him to 1,007 aces for the year.
It's the sixth season in a row in which he has reached the 1000 mark, but it wasn't enough to help him prevail.
"It's always a big challenge returning the serve of Isner," Djokovic said on the ATP Tour website.
"He's got one of the biggest serves of all time. He's one of the tallest guys ever to play tennis. Obviously, with that height, the serve is a huge weapon and huge advantage.
"I managed to kind of read his serve and find a good position on the return, at the end of the first set and also [at the] beginning of the second."
"I won five games in a row, and that was the key, obviously having a break each set, and then I kind of held my serve. I thought it was one of the best serving matches I had lately."
Djokovic will now face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals after Tsitsipas booked his place through a 7-5 3-6 7-6 (7-5) victory over Hubert Hurkacz.
The quarter-final will be the third meeting between Djokovic and Tsitsipas after duels at the Mutua Madrid Open final in May and at the Rogers Cup in Toronto last year - they share a victory a piece.
Elsewhere in the draw, Federer dismissed David Goffin 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 but was made to work for the result as he had to save five set points in the opening set.
The clash lasted just shy of two hours and creates a meeting for Federer with Alexander Zverev, who ousted Rublev 6-0 7-6 (7-4).
The third-seed Daniil Medvedev beat Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 as he continued his quest to reach a sixth consecutive ATP tour final.
"I start to feel different even if I try to stay the same," said Medvedev, who added that other players "start to talk to you differently."
The 248th-ranked Pospisil lost his bid to become the third qualifier ever to make the Shanghai quarters as he failed to capitalise on five set points in the first set, including two chances in the tie-break.
Medvedev, who reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open in September, leads the tour this year with 56 victories and next plays Fabio Fognini, who beat Andy Murray earlier in the draw.
"I think [he's] the worst player I can play at the moment," Fognini said of Medvedev. "He's really dangerous."
Fognini beat Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-5 to face-off against the Russian. Khachanov had won their first career meeting in three sets at the China Open quarters in Beijing.
"I'm happy because I was losing to him last week and I was playing really good also," 10th-seeded Fognini said.
