Kazakhstan's top-ranked player Alexander Bublik, world No. 22, advanced to the third round of the ATP-1000 Rolex Shanghai Masters by defeating American Brandon Nakashima (19) 6-7 (7-9), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) in the second round, infohub.kz reports.

Interestingly, as recently as September the two opponents were teammates: the Kazakh and the American of Japanese-Vietnamese descent played for Team World at the Laver Cup. In the doubles match at that tournament they lost to Norway's Casper Ruud and Germany's Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-7 (7-9).

In the first set of their head-to-head encounter, both players held serve confidently, and at the key moments of the tiebreak luck favored Nakashima. Saving two set points, Brandon took the set 9-7.

After smashing his racket and receiving a warning from the chair umpire, Bublik broke serve in the second set. Holding his opponent to love in the eighth game, the Kazakh sealed his advantage 6-3.

The third set unfolded much like the first, except this time the tiebreak went Bublik's way. The final score was 6-7 (7-9), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) in 2 hours 27 minutes. Aces: 22-12, double faults: 2-2, total points won: 110-91.

For a place in the quarterfinals, Bublik will face either top seed Zverev (2) or France's Quentin Halys (48).

Bublik (208) also competed in the doubles draw in Shanghai. Partnering with Ben Shelton (125) of the United States, Alexander lost to the Belarusian-Russian pair of Ivan Liutarevich (91) and Daniil Medvedev (352) 4-6, 3-6.

The Rolex Shanghai Masters (sponsor name) is an ATP-1000 men's tennis tournament with a prize pool of $9.4 million. The only Masters-1000 event outside North America and Europe, it took its current form in 2009.

Novak Djokovic (8), the record-holder for hard-court wins in Shanghai, has triumphed here four times. At this year's tournament, the Serb lost his opening match to Poland's Hubert Hurkacz (34) 4-6, 3-6.

Britain's Andy Murray has won the title three times, and Switzerland's Roger Federer twice. Russians Nikolay Davydenko and Daniil Medvedev, the aforementioned Pole Hurkacz, and Italy's Jannik Sinner have also left with the trophy.

Defending champion Valentin Vacherot of Monaco defeated France's Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in last year's final. Notably, in the second round of Shanghai 2025, Vacherot, then a qualifier, beat our Bublik 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.