Jannik Sinner showed his battling qualities to reach the China Open semi-finals with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Hungarian Fabian Marozsan on Monday, as the Italian stepped up his bid to narrow the gap on world number one Carlos Alcaraz.
Sinner lost the top ranking after surrendering his US Open crown to the Spaniard this month, but has responded well to the setback in Beijing, claiming a seventh semi-final spot in the eight tournaments he has played this year.
The world number two clinched the opening set in 26 minutes thanks to some big hitting from the baseline, but faced much stiffer resistance in the second and had to dust himself off after falling awkwardly in the eighth game.
He then found himself a break down at 4-5 but hit back immediately to deny Marozsan the set.
Sinner held and then pounced on his opponent's serve again in the 12th game, sealing his 40th tour-level match win of a season in which he served a short doping ban.
"I feel like I started off very well in the first set. We both played well in the second set. I had some break chances at 4-3, I couldn't use them," Sinner said.
"He's someone whose peak is high, which I knew before the match. When he was serving for the set he made a couple unforced errors which helped me to come back and win in two."
The 24-year-old said he was happy with how he battled during the tough moments.
"It's psychological of course. It's also how you arrive to these moments. I tried to fight," he added. "I had some tough service game holds at 0-30 a couple times. Happy with how I fought today."
Up next for the four-time major champion is Australian third seed Alex De Minaur, who reached the semis when Czech 20-year-old Jakub Mensik retired from their match with a left leg injury while trailing 1-4 in the opening set.
American teenager Learner Tien takes on Sinner's compatriot and fourth seed Lorenzo Musetti, while Russian eighth seed Daniil Medvedev and German second seed Alexander Zverev renew their rivalry in the other quarter-final.
