BELGIAN David Goffin wound back the clock at the 2024 Shanghai Masters overnight, with the former Top 10 talent upsetting second seed and world number three Alexander Zverev to reach the quarter finals of the ATP 1000 event.

Goffin won in straight sets, 6-4 7-5, to advance past the German who was in the headlines on-court once again in his previous match when complaining about the standard of umpiring at the tournament. He was penalised from a clear double bounce during the first set of his victory over Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor but disagreed with the call, and went on to say umpiring was the reason he had lost his two Grand Slam finals.

Whether that extra effort put a burden on his next match it is hard to gauge, but Goffin was as good as Zverev was bad, counterpunching a lot of the German’s work and hitting several nice passing shots to get the crowd up and about.

Goffin is no stranger to beating Zverev, and while the higher ranked German held a 4-2 head-to-head record against the Belgian coming into the match, it was the the pair’s first ATP Tour hardcourt clash, having only faced off in a Mons Challenger event back in 2014 which Goffin won.

In the Shanghai Masters contest, Zverev produced eight aces and won 67 per cent of his first serve points, but Goffin did well at nullifying his usual 80-plus percentage in that area, all while winning 72 per cent of his second serve return points.

On his own serve, the Belgian won 65 and 54 per cent of his points, converting four breaks from 11 opportunities, while only being broken himself twice. The victory meant the world number 66 moved up 13 spots on the live world rankings into number 53rd, with a return to the Top 50 on the cards if he can overcome seventh seed Taylor Fritz in the quarter finals.

The 33-year-old is a former ATP Finalist back in 2017, and will play his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter final since 2021. When asked about his inspiration and drive given he has largely spent time on the Challenger Tour of late, the veteran said his daughter.

“I wanted to show my daughter that I can be a good tennis player,” Goffin said. “We tried to find a few more years to show her that I can still play tennis, and that’s the case for the moment. Even if she doesn’t realise yet, hopefully she will come and watch a little bit.

“Sometimes you have doubts about your fitness and your head. If you’re not 100 per cent there, mentally, it’s tough to compete with those guys – the level is so high. “I have put a lot of hard work in [over] the past few months and there is no [surprise] the tennis came back and I am really happy to be back again in the quarter finals of an ATP Masters 1000.”

That seems like an almighty task after Fritz dismantled Holger Rune in just 55 minutes, 6-1 6-2. He served nine aces and won 86 per cent of his first serve points, saving the only break point he faced, while converting all four chances he earned upon return.

While Zverev was bundled out in the Round of 16, the other big three seeds all secured their spots in the last eight with relatively minimal fuss. World number one Jannik Sinner had a tough contest against American Ben Shelton in a 6-4 7-6 result, while new world number two Carlos Alcaraz fought off a reinvigorated Gael Monfils, 6-4 7-5. Novak Djokovic made light work of Russian Roman Safiullin, 6-3 6-2.

More umpire controversy took place during Stefanos Tsitsipas‘ 7-6 6-3 loss to Daniil Medvedev. The Greek told chair umpire Frank Murphy he had never played tennis before, to which Murphy replied he had, though obviously not to Tsitsipas’ level. Quick to return serve, Tsitsipas offended all serve-and-volleyers out there by saying Murphy would have adopted the style due to having “no cardio”.

Regardless, Medvedev’s victory saw the fifth seed move through to the quarter finals to take on Sinner, while in the other results, it was a good day from the Czech fans with both Jakub Mensik and Tomas Machac taking out top seeds. Mensik toppled ninth seed Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-3 3-6 6-4, while 30th seed Machac outsted 11th seeded Tommy Paul in three sets, 3-6 6-4 6-3.