China Open finalist Alex de Minaur shares injury update after reaching Shanghai quarter-finals

The player retired from the match due to a groin injury against the Serbian star, with many fearing the worse for the rest of the star's season.

However, the Australian has bounced back at the Shanghai Masters by reaching the last eight of the penultimate Masters event on the ATP Tour.

De Minaur has beaten Rei Sakamoto and Karen Khachanov to reach the quarterfinals of the competition, where he will await the winner of Alexander Zverev or Alexander Bublik.

In his post-match press conference, de Minaur was asked how his groin is doing after returning to action so soon after suffering the injury.

"Yeah, it's been feeling better and better every single day. It's been seven to eight days since that match, and there's been a lot of focus on the recovery aspect of it," said de Minaur.

"I've been doing everything in my power to feel better each and every day. Today was by far the best day. I had to complement that with some great tennis and great serving and some smart kind of tactics. All in all, I thought it was a very clean match, which I'm very happy with."

In a surprising turn of events, de Minaur is one of the key favourites to lift the title now too, which was not expecting when he stumbled off the court in Beijing.

He will likely have a difficult match-up against Zverev to come next, but the star has an impressive recent record against the next world No 1.

The Australian has beaten Zverev in their last two matches together, although they have both come in exhibition matches at the Laver Cup.

De Minaur has beaten the German in London and San Francisco on Laver Cup duty for Team World, and he also has victories against Zverev at the United Cup and the ATP Cup.

However, Zverev has beaten de Minaur eight times on the ATP Tour during their careers.

That includes a victory at the Shanghai Masters, as well as two other ATP 1000 events at Indian Wells and the Italian Open.

Should de Minaur find a way past Zverev, however, only Felix Auger-Aliassime and Daniil Medvedev are left in the competition who are ranked higher than the Australian.

De Minaur now has a perfect opportunity to end his season on a high - and confirm his qualification place at the ATP Finals at the end of the year.

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