Tomas Machac has his sights set firmly on Jannik Sinner as he prepares to face the Italian in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters.

The Czech secured his place in the final four of the competition with an impressive win over Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday afternoon.

Machac secured a 7-6, 7-5 win to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final and he is already aiming to pull off another upset after defeating world No. 2 in style fell on the sword.

After his win, Machac said: “Well, I played unbelievably. I knew my level of tennis would be great today because I’m definitely playing the best of my career right now.

“I beat Tommy Paul in the last game with an incredible performance. With players like that, I have to play at that level. Otherwise it’s 6-2 6-3 and you go home. There is no other option.”

When asked if he felt he would beat Alcaraz at the start of the match, the world number 33 continued: “Actually, I knew I had a chance. But you never know.”

“With players like him, if you have a set and are serving at 5-4, it’s really far from winning the game. I played against him at the Davis Cup and only managed to play at that level in one set. Today it was two. Enough.”

With the win, Machac now prepares for a clash with Sinner and he hopes to complete his hat-trick of beating the best in the business following his victories over Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, who he faced in Geneva.

Speaking about his emotions before the game with Sinner, he said: “I’m looking forward to it. I really enjoy being in the semi-finals and am happy to be able to play against the best players.”

The defeat ends Alcaraz’s 12-game winning streak and ensures Sinner will finish the year as world number one. The Italian hopes to celebrate this success with a win in Shanghai.

Sinner reached the semifinals of the competition with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Daniil Medvedev. After the win he said: “I’m very happy with how I handled this game. It felt like he had a little shoulder pain, he couldn’t hit the forehand as well as he wanted. It was a great game, a great fight and let’s see what I can do in the semi-final.