Top Seeds Carlos Alcaraz from Spain and Daniil Medvedev from Russia cruised into the China Open men's singles final four on Monday, respectively.
Alcaraz dispatched Casper Ruud of Norway 6-4, 6-2, en route to earning a title that will retain his hope of finishing the season as world No. 1.
Carlos Alcaraz in action during China Open men's singles quarterfinal in Beijing, China, October 2, 2023. /CFP
Currently sitting in second place and 635 points short of leading Novak Djokovic from Serbia, Alcaraz will be able to reduce the gap to 415 points given he wins his seventh title of the season on October 4.
The 20-year-old had a slumpy 0-3 start against seventh seed Ruud, which he quickly shook off with 30 winners while breaking Ruud's serve four times to set up his next round with Italian Jannik Sinner in less than two hours, and extend his head-to-head record with Ruud to 4-0.
Daniil Medvedev in action during China Open men's singles quarterfinal in Beijing, China, October 2, 2023. /CFP
Meanwhile, second seed Medvedev rallied past France's Ugo Humbert 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 to set up the other semifinal with Germany's Zverev, who downed Chile's Nicolas Jarry 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3.
Medvedev, who has a small margin of 9-7 in his head-to-head record with Zverev, said that he looked forward to meeting him again.
"Many of our matches are going three sets, long tiebreaks, stuff like this, drama sometimes, whatever. [It] could be an interesting match," he said.
On the women' side, top seeds including Iga Swiatek of Poland, Coco Gauff of the U.S., Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and Caroline Garcia of France advanced to the next round, while local favorite Zheng Qinwen fell short to proceed against fifth seed Rybakina.