Aussie qualifier Aleksandar Vukic has notched up the biggest win of his career, defeating three-time major finalist and world No.8 Casper Ruud 6-4 6-4 in the second round of the Shanghai Masters.
Vukic, 28, held his nerve to claim his maiden top-10 win on the ATP tour, surviving two rounds of qualifying to enter the main draw.
"It was a very tough match but I’m playing well, so I didn’t want to change too much," said Vukic on court post-match.
"(I wanted to) really stick to my game plan and take it to Casper. I think I did a good job."
One break of serve in each set was enough for Vukic to pull away with the victory, winning 85 per cent of first serve points while dropping 12 points on serve.
"I’m very proud of myself. I played a very good match," he said. "It was very clean, it doesn’t happen often that you get two out of two (break points). Sometimes it’s zero out of 10, so I’ll take it and I’m very pleased with it.
"I was very nervous, which is normal. I played some good points, tried to get it out of my system. Grunted a little more and served well when I needed to."
The result sees the Sydneysider rise six places to world No.85, with his career-best ranking achieved in August last year when he shot up to No.48.
Vukic will meet 30th seed Tomas Machac in the next round.
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