Straight set victory sees Novak Djokovic enter final four at Shanghai Masters

Djokovic has been the favourite to win the Shanghai Masters since Jannik Sinner's withdrawal and the tennis great's chances of winning only his second title in 2025 have received another big boost.

With world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz withdrawing from the tournament, defending champion Jannik Sinner retiring from his third-round match and third seed Alexander Zverev losing early, Djokovic became most people's pick to win the title.

And the draw gods certainly shone down on him with a favourable path as after receiving a first-round bye, he took on world No. 94 Marin Cilic in the second round, No. 150 Yannick Hanfmann in the third round and now world No. 41 Munar in the round of 16.

He earned a quarter-final clash against world No. 44 Zizou Bergs, and although the Belgian enjoyed a few moments of brilliance, 

He is into his 80th Masters semi-final, having won a record 40 titles, and at the age of 38 years and four months, he is also the oldest ATP Masters 1000 semi-finalist.

The 24-time Grand Slam winner finished runner-up to Sinner in the 2024 Shanghai final and he is looking for his first ATP Masters 1000 title since winning the 2023 Paris Masters trophy.

But there will be no Sinner this time around or Alcaraz, Zverev, Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, Lorenzo Musetti or Holger Rune to stop him.

Fritz, Shelton and Rune were all in the bottom half of the draw, but they have all exited the tournament with Rune the latest to fall after being shocked by world No. 204 Valentin Vacherot in the quarter-final.

And Djokovic will now go on to face qualifier Vacherot following his 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 upset win over the 10th seeded Dane.

The Monegasque player is looking forward to facing one of the Big Three.

"This is only my fourth season on the professional tour. I started my first full season when it was in 2022. So I missed Roger [Federer]. Roger stopped in 2022.

"I think I played maybe one tournament the same as Rafa [Nadal]. So I had no chance to play Rafa in my career.

"And if I, who knows whenever Novak is going to retire, we know it's rather sooner than later. So if I can play Saturday Novak it will be, it would just be, it would mean a lot to play at least one of the guys of the big three in my career."

There are still a few danger men in the top half of the draw with former world No 1 Daniil Medvedev taking on Alex de Minaur in one quarter-final and 12th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime up against Arthur Rinderknech.

Although the former world No 1's tropies have dried up in recent years as last year he won only one tournament - it was a big one as he won the singles gold at the Paris Olympics to complete his Career Golden Slam â- and so far in 2025 the Geneva Open is his only title.

But Djokovic is now just two wins away from a 101st ATP Tour singles title and fifth Shanghai crown.

READ MORE: Conor McGregor slips further into obscurity following hefty doping ban