Vukic secures biggest win of his career at Shanghai Masters
Aleksandar Vukic bagged the biggest win of his tennis career on Friday, defeating world No.9 Casper Ruud to advance to the third round of the Shanghai Masters in China.
The world No.91 was 0-5 against top 10 players heading into the match, but hit 28 winners to 13 across the one-hour, 18-minute match to send the three-time Grand Slam finalist home, 6-4, 6-4.
“It was a very tough match but I’m playing well, so I didn’t want to change too much,” said Vukic, who is now on a four-match winning streak after moving his way through qualifying to earn a spot in the Shanghai main draw earlier in the week.
“I wanted to really stick to my game plan and take it to Casper.
“I think I did a good job.
“I’m very proud of myself, I played a very good match.”
Vukic was efficient in the big moments of the second-round match, converting both break points he gained on Ruud’s serve and defending all three he faced on his own.
“It was very clean,” he said of his performance on Friday.
“It doesn’t happen often that you get two out of two break points.
“Sometimes it’s like, zero out of 10.
“I was very nervous, which is normal.
“I played some good points, tried to get it out of my system.
“Grunted a little more and served well when I needed to.
“So, I’ll take it and I’m very pleased with it.”
Vukic will now play 30th seed Tomas Machac in the third round, who beat Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 in his second-round match.
Two other Australian’s remain alive in Shanghai after a tough first round led to the exits of Rinky Hijikata, Christopher O’Connell, James Duckworth and Li Tu earlier in the week.
Jordan Thompson and Alexei Popyrin get their Shanghai Masters campaigns underway on Saturday, with both favoured by tennis bookmakers to advance to the third round.
