With his extended injury layoff now in the rearview mirror, Carlos Alcaraz looks to keep the good times rolling Monday evening when he squares off against Zizou Bergs in the third round.
Alcaraz, who recently won his 27th career title in Tokyo, is riding a seven-match winning streak into his clash with the Belgian, who will be no pushover after reaching the quarter-finals here last year.
The players have met just once before, with Alcaraz winning in straight sets in Tokyo in 2025.
The Spaniard enjoyed a routine 6-3, 6-3 win over Juan Manuel Cerundolo in his Saturday opener and said that he liked the conditions inside Qi Zhong Stadium.
“The speed of the court is very fast, which I like,” the former World No. 1 said.
Alcaraz missed four and a half months of the 2026 season with a wrist injury before returning at the US Open, where he reached the quarter-finals before losing to Ben Shelton. The 23-year-old then secured a match win at the Laver Cup before building momentum in Asia, where he triumphed in Tokyo.
The Rolex Shanghai Masters is one of just three Masters 1000 events at which Alcaraz has yet to lift the trophy, alongside Canada and Paris. This week, he is bidding to become the first Spanish man to win the title in the tournament’s history.
Bergs had a deep run here last year, winning four main-draw matches before falling to Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals. He has reached 20 wins this year for the second straight season and is just six places below his career-high PIF ATP Ranking of No. 33.
In the second match of the night session, defending champion Valentin Vacherot faces Tommy Paul in a first-time meeting, with the winner to play either Alcaraz or Bergs.
Speaking after his first-round win over Sebastian Baez, a humble Vacherot said he was somewhat uncomfortable framing this year’s campaign as an attempt to defend the title he won from qualifying last year.
“I tried to not take it as a title defense,” he said. “It will be too arrogant to say I'm coming here to just defend my title. But tonight was just the joy of coming back here… Being back and working on the centre court is just crazy, because last year was of course my best tennis of all time.”
Paul, who has 40 wins on the year, has reached the fourth round in his two prior appearances here.
World No. 43 Stefanos Tsitsipas takes a 4-2 lead over 11th-seeded American Taylor Fritz into their third-round meeting. Working his way back up the rankings over the past year, Tsitsipas has grown accustomed to facing high-seeded players in the early rounds.
The Greek defeated Fritz on hard court in the first week of the season at the United Cup in Perth.
Also Monday, Learner Tien and Casper Ruud will do battle for the first time.
Tien is looking to reach the fourth round just as he did on debut last year and likely will use his left-handed forehand to stretch Ruud wide to the backhand in the Ad court.
Ruud advanced to the fourth round on his debut in 2023 but has not been beyond the third round since. The Norwegian has been to the quarter-finals of all ATP Masters 1000s except Shanghai.
