Top seed Carlos Alcaraz missed out on a quarterfinal berth at the ATP Shanghai Masters after losing to Bulgarian veteran Grigor Dimitrov 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday.
"I feel like I've played against a lot of different players over the years, and obviously he's one of the youngest ones. So I think it takes some time to adjust. Everyone knows how amazing of a player he is. There's no questioning his skills or anything like that. All I wanted to do was to get out there and play a better match and do the things right," said Dimitrov.
Prior to his round-of-16 defeat on Wednesday, the world No. 2 Alcaraz had lost in the China Open semifinal in Beijing a few days ago.
"Even if I didn't make the quarterfinal or losing in the semifinal, I think I'm playing great tennis. So I have to practice 100 percent in these weeks before Basel, that's the next tournament for me, so I'll try to make my best in that tournament," commented Alcaraz.
Dimitrov's next opponent will be Nicolas Jarry, who beat Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
Andrey Rublev cruised with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Tommy Paul of the United States. The fifth seed will next play against Ugo Humbert as the Frenchman registered a comfortable 6-1, 6-2 victory over Jeffrey John Wolf of the United States.