Shanghai, Oct 11 (IANS): Nicolas Jarry reached his maiden ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal on Wednesday after he downed the resurgent Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 at the Shanghai Masters.

With a win, the Chilean 22nd seed, who is celebrating his 28th birthday booked a quarterfinal meeting with Carlos Alcaraz or Grigor Dimitrov. He outhit Schwartzman by 44 winners to 17 to claim his second win of the year against the Argentine and improve to 2-4 in the pair’s ATP Head-to-Head series.

"I'm very happy to be able to come back after that second set. I was struggling a little bit. I tried to push myself. It’s very tough to play against Diego because of our history. Mentally he is so strong, a great competitor and he makes every ball. You have to work a lot and I’m very happy to overcome it," Jarry was quoted by ATP Tour website.

Reaching the last eight was another milestone in a career-best season for Jarry, who has notched 36 tour-level wins in 2023. That tally includes title runs in his hometown of Santiago and in Geneva, and he now stands on the brink of breaking the Top 20 in the ATP Rankings for the first time. He is currently 21st in the ATP Live Rankings.

Ugo Humbert joined Jarry in making 2023 the most successful year of his career with a dominant 6-1, 6-2 triumph against J.J. Wolf.

The 32nd seed Humbert will take on fifth seed Andrey Rublev or 12th seed Tommy Paul in his second Masters 1000 quarter-final. The 25-year-old, who also reached the last eight at the Paris Masters in 2020, is up five spots to No. 29 in the ATP Live Rankings as a result of his Shanghai run.