Djokovic moves into Shanghai quarter-finals as Medvedev beats Pospisil

John Isner served his 1,000th ace of the season but it wasn’t enough to stop defending champion Novak Djokovic from moving into the Shanghai Masters quarterfinals with a 7-5, 6-3 win on Thursday.

Top-seeded Djokovic is on a 24-0 sets winning streak in Asia dating back to last year’s Shanghai Masters. He won his inaugural appearance at the Japan Open last week without losing a set.

Isner’s nine aces against Djokovic took him to 1,007 for the year, reaching the milestone for the sixth season overall.

Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev continued his quest to reach a sixth consecutive ATP tour final after beating Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil 7-6 (7), 7-5 in their Round-of-16 match.

“I start to feel different even if I try to stay the same,” said Medvedev, who added that other players “start to talk to you differently.” The 248th-ranked Pospisil lost his bid to become the third qualifier ever to make the Shanghai quarterfinals.

Pospisil failed to capitalize on five set points in the first set, including two chances in the tiebreaker.

Medvedev’s frustration got the better of him when Pospisil led 4-2, 40-30 in the first set, which led to him smashing his racket repeatedly into the ground at the baseline.

“I usually don’t like to do it, to break the rackets, because it’s never beautiful,” Medvedev said. “But it’s true that sometimes it maybe can help to get some emotions out and get also the stress out.” Third-seeded Medvedev, who reached his first Grand Slam final at the U.S. Open in September, leads the tour this year with 56 victories. He next plays 10th-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy in the quarterfinals.

“I think (he’s) the worst player I can play at the moment,” Fognini said of Medvedev. “He’s really dangerous.” Fognini beat seventh-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-3, 7-5. Khachanov had won their first career meeting in three sets at the China Open quarterfinals in Beijing.

“I’m happy because I was losing to him last week and I was playing really good also,” 10th-seeded Fognini said.

The 11th-seeded Matteo Berrettini of Italy outlasted No. 8 Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 7-6 (5), 6-4.

___ More AP Tennis: https://www.apnews.com/apf-Tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports By SANDRA HARWITT Associated Press Naomi Osaka picks Japanese citizenship with eye on Olympics: NHK Tokyo, Oct 10, 2019 (AFP) - Tennis star Naomi Osaka has decided to choose Japanese over American nationality with an eye on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, public broadcaster NHK reported Thursday.

Osaka, who has a Japanese mother and a Haitian father, told NHK she has completed an administrative step to obtain Japanese citizenship ahead of her birthday next week.

Japanese law stipulates that a Japanese with more than one nationality must chose one before turning 22 years old.

“It gives me a special feeling to try to go to the Olympics to represent Japan,” the two-time Grand Slam champion told the broadcaster in an interview in Tokyo.

“I think I will be able to put more of my emotion into it by playing for the pride of the country,” she said, according to the article published in Japanese on the NHK website.

Osaka added she wants to aim for the gold although she is also worried as expectations will be high.

The young tennis sensation is a household name in Japan, where her every move is followed feverishly by local media, particularly when she is in the country of her mother’s birth.

She is the face of several leading Japanese brands, including the carrier ANA, and “Naomi-chan” -- as she is affectionately known -- was the main attraction at last month’s Pan Pacific Open in Osaka, which she won.

But she has faced controversies over her dual heritage in a nation that is fairly racially homogeneous, as well as scrutiny for her imperfect Japanese language skills -- though others insist they add to her charm.

Agencies