Madrid Masters: Shang beats Moutet in 3-hour, 59-minute epic to reach second round

Chinese wildcard Juncheng Shang edged out French qualifier Corentin Moutet in a marathon match that lasted 3 hours and 59 minutes to reach the second round of the Madrid Masters at the Caja Magica on Wednesday.

Both players had several chances in the match with Shang converting 4 of 17 breakpoints (24 percent) and Moutet 2 of 13 breakpoints (15 percent) before the 19-year-old Chinese came through on his sixth matchpoint to win 6-7 (9), 6-2, 7-6 (10).

Shang, ranked No 111, will play No 27 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina next.

“It’s gotta be the longest match I have ever played in my life,” Shang said after his win. “On clay it was very tough physically against an amazing player like Corentin. The level was insane. Even had I lost I would not have had regrets. It was almost the perfect match for me.”

Madrid Masters 1000, other first-round results (Caja Magica, clay, EUR 7,877,020):

• Denis Shapovalov beat Facundo Diaz Acosta: 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
• Lukas Klein (Q) beat Pablo Llamas Ruiz (Q): 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (4)
• Botic van de Zandschulp beat Christopher Eubanks: 6-3, 6-3
• Facundo Bagnis (Q) beat Brandon Nakashima (Q): 6-3, 7-6 (5)
• Borna Coric beat Benjamin Hassan (Q): 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-3
• Jack Draper beat Thanasi Kokkinakis (Q): 6-3, 3-6, 7-5
• Fabian Marozsan beat Aslan Karatsev: 7-6 (6), 7-6 (2)
• Luciano Darderi beat Gael Monfils: 6-4, 6-2
• Luca Van Assche beat Zizou Bergs (WC): 6-4, 6-7, 6-1
• Alexander Shevchenko beat Arthur Rinderknech: 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
• Daniel Altmaier beat Martin Landaluce (WC): 6-1, 7-5
• Thiago Seyboth Wild beat Roman Safiullin: 6-4, 6-4
• Jaume Munar beat Nuno Borges: 7-5, 6-4
• Mariano Navone beat Alexei Popyrin: 7-5, 6-2
• Taro Daniel beat Aleksandar Vukic: 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-1
• Dominik Koepfer vs. Roberto Carballes Baena
• Darwin Blanch vs. Rafael Nadal
• Alex Michelsen vs. Joao Fonseca
• Aleksandar Kovacevic vs. Hamad Medjedovic
• Albert Ramos-Vinolas vs. Pavel Kotov
• Zhizhen Zhang vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
• Yannick Hanfmann vs. Jakub Mensik
• Daniel Elahi Galan vs. Roberto Bautista Agut
• Dusan Lajovic vs. Thiago Monteiro
• Max Purcell vs. Marcos Giron
• Christopher O’Connell vs. Matteo Arnaldi
• Richard Gasquet vs. Lorenzo Sonego
• Pedro Cachin vs. Sebastian Ofner
• Tomas Machac vs. Emil Ruusuvuori
• Yoshihito Nishioka vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
• Alejandro Tabilo vs. Flavio Cobolli