Sinner into China Open half days after calling for him to be banned

Top-ranked Jannik Sinner reached the semi-finals of the China Open on Monday with a 6-2, 7-6 (6) win over Jiri Lehecka.

Just two days after the World Anti-Doping Agency announced it was seeking a one-to-two-year ban for the US Open champion, who tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March, the 23-year-old Italian appeared undistracted as he quickly got to grips with Lehecka’s serve at number 37 in a dominant first set.

The defending champion conceded two set points at 4-6 in the second-set tiebreak but found a way to seal his 14th consecutive win and advance to a semi-final against fifth-seeded Andrey Rubev or local favorite No. .96 in the Bu rankings. Yunchaokete, who plays later Monday.

“So happy how I handled a difficult situation,” Sinner said. “I feel like I can still improve on a few things here, so hopefully tomorrow is the day I feel better on the field.”

Third-ranked Carlos Alcaraz advanced to the semi-finals of the China Open for the second year in a row after an impressive 7-5, 6-2 victory against Karen Khachanov on Monday.

The 21-year-old Spaniard was characteristically ruthless from the baseline, beating Khachanov’s service games at number 27 and converting four of 12 service break chances in 96 minutes to win.

“I always try to put some pressure when they’re serving, just to tell them in a way that I’m going to be there,” Alcaraz said. “If they want to win the service game or beat me, they have to accept the battle and play really good tennis. For me, that’s what I try to show them all the time.”

It was Alcaraz’s 46th victory of the season and the victory allowed the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion to climb back above the absent Alexander Zverev to second place in the ATP live rankings.

Alcaraz will face Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals after the fifth-seeded Russian defeated Flavio Cobolli of Italy 6-2, 6-4.

Medvedev, still seeking his first title of the year, made 16 fewer unforced errors than the Italian and converted four of his eight break point chances as he completed a solid 88th-minute win.

Earlier, Andrei Rublev defeated Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-4, 7-5 in a match that was postponed from Sunday due to a rain delay.

The No. 6 ranked Rublev had six aces and 21 winners to extend his career record against Davidovich Fokina to 5-0.

The fifth-seeded Russian played No. 96 local favorite Bu Yunchaokete in the quarter-finals later on Monday.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.