Demon gifted walkover and birthday boy Ben celebrates

Alex de Minaur has been given an armchair ride into the third round at the ATP 1000-level Shanghai Masters.

The ninth-seeded Australian was handed a walkover when his opponent, Alex Molcan, retired with an undisclosed ailment on Friday.

It is somewhat ironic de Minaur advanced in this fashion, after the Aussie had to retire with an adductor injury in the China Open final against Novak Djokovic on Tuesday.

De Minaur advanced to a round-of-32 clash against Japan's world No.137 Rei Sakamoto, who stunned Russian Andrey Rublev, a former top-10 player, 6-4 6-4 on Friday.

The Australian, widely known as "the Demon", is looking to qualify for the elite eight-man ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, for a third straight year after making the semi-finals in 2025.

In other results on Friday, US Open runner-up Ben Shelton celebrated his 24th birthday by advancing to the third round with a 6-3 7-6 (8-6) win over Germany's Daniel Altmaier.

The American played Davis Cup after the US Open, losing both his singles matches, after withdrawing from the Laver Cup teams event.

Top-seeded Alexander Zverev, who beat Shelton in the final in four sets at Flushing Meadows, beat Chinese wildcard entry Wu Yibing 6-4 7-6 (7-4) on Friday.

Djokovic, who won the China Open on Tuesday for a 102nd career title, was scheduled to play a night match against Poland's Hubert Hurkacz.

World No.1 Jannik Sinner withdrew from Shanghai this week when he announced he was taking the rest of 2026 off with a right knee injury. Djokovic said on Thursday he plans to reach out to Sinner about his injury-plagued season.