Carlos Alcaraz overcame a difficult take a look at from Daniel Evans on Monday on the Rolex Shanghai Masters, advancing 7-6(1), 6-4 to spice up his ATP 12 months-Finish No. 1 introduced by Pepperstone probabilities.

The Spaniard, who’s making his debut in Shanghai, dealt with Evans’ court-craft along with his personal agility and energy, prevailing in a collection of lung-busting exchanges to enhance to 41-1 on the 12 months in opposition to gamers ranked outdoors the High 20.

Alcaraz pissed off Evans along with his depth and accuracy within the third-round conflict and rallied from a break down within the first set to guide. He then dedicated simply two unforced errors within the second set to enhance to 4-0 within the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head collection.

“It was a extremely robust match. It was one of many hardest matches I’ve performed outdoors of the Grand Slams,” Alcaraz mentioned. “Each time I play Daniel it’s a tough match and I’ve to play my greatest to beat him… Each of us performed a top quality of tennis and I’m actually completely satisfied to get by way of.”

Along with his Tour-leading 63rd win of the season, the 20-year-old has closed the hole on Novak Djokovic to 500 factors within the Pepperstone ATP Stay Race To Turin. If Alcaraz reaches the title match he’ll leapfrog the Serbian into first place.

Alcaraz is looking for his seventh tour-level title of the season this week and third at ATP Masters 1000 stage (Indian Wells, Madrid). He’ll subsequent play 18th seed Grigor Dimitrov following his two-hour, 25-minute win in opposition to Evans.