Both David Goffin and Alexander Zverev will pass Gael Monfils in the 2019 race to London next Monday after reaching respective quarterfinals in Tokyo and Beijing.
Goffin improved to 10-1 lifetime at the Rakuten Japan Open by beating Denis Shapovalov 7-6(5), 7-6(2) in one hour and 57 minutes on Thursday afternoon. The 15th-ranked Belgian won this tournament in 2017 after finishing runner-up to Nick Kyrgios in 2016.
“It was tough,” Goffin said of Thursday’s contest. “He was serving really well and I knew it’d be long sets with some tiebreaks. I tried to break him during the whole match; I didn’t, but I served really well. We were both really solid on our service games and during the tiebreaks I played very well. I’m really happy about my performance because it was a good fight.
“Today I think I was a little bit better (than in round one against Pablo Carreno Busta). But he was serving so well, lefty, serving everywhere, great second serve as well, so it was tough to break him today. I had to fight.”
At the China Open, Zverev had no trouble taking care of Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 6-1. The sixth-ranked German struck five aces while double-faulting only twice, won 25 of 27 first-serve points, and did not face a single break point while advancing in one hour and two minutes.
Zverev is the defending Nitto ATP Finals champion, but he is currently outside the cut line for making a return trip to London. Eleventh at the moment, Beijing’s No. 2 seed is projected to reach at least No. 10 depending on how the rest of this week shakes out. He could climb to No. 8 with a win over Sam Querrey on Friday and as high as seventh with a title.
Goffin is in the same boat. He could reach No. 8 by defeating Hyeon Chung on Friday and No. 7 is within reach with another title in Tokyo.
[polldaddy poll=10423957]
race for last two spots is so tight