Another jam-packed slate of third-round action at the Shanghai Masters is set for Monday, when Carlos Alcaraz and Andrey Rublev take the court. Alacaraz awaits Dan Evans, while Rublev faces Astana winner Adrian Mannarino.
(1) Carlos Alcaraz vs. (30) Dan Evans
Alcaraz and Evans will be going head-to-head for the fourth time in their careers when they meet again in round three of the Rolex Shanghai Masters on Monday. All three of their previous encounters have gone Alcaraz’s way; 6-4, 6-3 on the indoor hard courts of Vienna and twice this season (6-2, 6-2 in the Barcelona semifinals and 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in an entertaining U.S. Open third-round contest).
Alcaraz is coming off a Beijing semifinal loss to Jannik Sinner, so he is well rested and should be extremely motivated with 1,000 points on the the line in Shanghai with Novak Djokovic in striking distance for the year-end No. 1 ranking. The Spaniard kicked off his week by beating Gregoire Barrere 6-2, 7-5. Evans, who got a retirement from Mikhail Kukushkin, is playing great this year but–as the results indicate–has never been able to give Alcaraz serious problems with his aggressive, net-attacking game.
Pick: Alcaraz in 2
(31) Adrian Mannarino vs. (5) Andrey Rublev
Mannarino is enjoying the best season of his career, with two of his four ATP titles–including on this fall swing in Astana. The 35-year-old Frenchman is up to No. 23 in the world and doesn’t appear to be slowing down on the heels of his Astana success, as he opened in Shanghai with a 6-2, 6-2 rout of Chun-Hsin Tseng.
Up next for Mannarino is a fourth meeting with Rublev, who leads the head-to-head series 2-1 (all indoors) after most recently prevailing 6-1, 6-2 at the 2022 Astana event. The world No. 7 hasn’t been at his absolute best of late, but overall he has been in stellar form this year and is next in line to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals after Sinner clinched his spot on Saturday. Mannarino is a tricky matchup for almost everyone on tour, but it’s not a terrible one for Rublev since the Russian wields amazing firepower from the baseline and doesn’t get sucked into the left-hander’s slice-and-dice game. Look for Rublev to win a high-quality encounter.
Pick: Rublev in 3
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