SHANGHAI (AP) — U.S. Open runner-up Ben Shelton celebrated his 24th birthday Friday by advancing to the third round of the Shanghai Masters with a 6-3, 7-6 (6) win over Daniel Altmaier in the ATP 1000-level tournament.
Shelton played Davis Cup for the United States after the U.S. Open, losing both his singles matches, after withdrawing from the Laver Cup team event.
Top-seeded Alexander Zverev, who beat Shelton in the final in four sets at Flushing Meadows, was scheduled to play Chinese wild-card entry Wu Yibing in the next match on the main Stadium Court at Shanghai.
Novak Djokovic, who won the China Open on Tuesday for a 102nd career title, was scheduled to play a night match Friday against Hubert Hurkacz.
In other early results Friday in Shanghai, ninth-seeded Alex de Minaur advanced to the third round on a walkover when his opponent, Alex Molcan, retired with an undisclosed ailment. De Minaur had to retire with an adductor injury in the China Open final against Djokovic.
Also Friday, qualifier Rei Sakamoto beat 23rd-seeded Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-4.
No. 1 Jannik Sinner withdrew from Shanghai this week when he announced he was taking the rest of 2026 off due to a right knee injury. Djokovic said Thursday he plans to reach out to Sinner about his injury-plagued season.
See AP’s full tennis coverage here
Alexander Zverev, of Germany, leaves after losing to Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, in the men's singles quarterfinals match of the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — As shark attack survivor Mel Ismail fought the predator that severed his leg, he noticed something odd:
“I saw its eye … a big black eye,” Ismail said. “But it was winking back at me — I was trying to get my fingers in its eye and just pushing its eye as I was being dragged.”
When the shark swam off, he managed to struggle back to shore, the surfer and professional firefighter said in an interview that revealed new details of his near-death encounter.
He was surfing at Glenfield Beach near Geraldton on Australia's west coast when he was attacked on Sept. 14. He lost his right leg below the knee.
Ismail recalled in an Australian Broadcasting Corp. interview broadcast on Thursday that he was resting when he spotted a pod of about 20 dolphins before being hit by something big. It's the first time he has spoken publicly about the attack.
“I thought I got hit by a dolphin, initially,” Ismail said.
“And suddenly — bang — something grabbed me and dragged me down into the water. And I knew it was a shark,” Ismail added.
Ismail said it looked like the shark winked at him before it bit his leg.
Many sharks, including the white shark and mako shark, do not have eyelids, but when attacking prey, they roll their eyeballs backward into their sockets as a protective measure, exposing a tough layer of white cartilage. Authorities have yet to determine the species of shark that attacked Ismail.
Alone and bleeding at the back of the surf break, Ismail caught a wave that took him about 20 meters (66 feet) closer to shore.
Ismail said he was out of breath and losing strength when he spotted surfer Shannan Dunn coming down the dunes on to the beach.
Dunn went to Ismail’s rescue, helping the shark victim on to Dunn’s board.
Ismail described Dunn as having “eyes like saucers.”
“The first thing he (Dunn) said to me is, ‘Where’s the shark?'” Ismail said. “I said, ‘I don’t know. I've got a bit going on here.'"
Once they returned to the beach, an onlooker crafted a tourniquet for Ismail using a leg rope and another onlooker phoned for an ambulance.
A pair of teenagers helped Ismail climb into Dunn's SUV and they drove along the beach to meet an ambulance.
“I had a heap of people laughing, keeping me alive, keeping me positive in the back,” Ismail said.
“I gave a few knuckles to the people there, because I was feeling good,” Ismail added. “I started to feel like I (was) going to make it.”
Four days after Ismail was attacked, 63-year-old swimmer Greg O’Neill was fatally mauled by a large white shark. O’Neill was attacked off Sorrento Beach in Perth’s northern suburbs, around 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Geraldton.
Ismail said he intends to return to the surf as a bodyboarder.
There have been five fatal shark attacks in Australia this year.
Three spearfishing divers were killed by sharks off the Australian coast in four weeks over May and June. In January, a 12-year-old boy died in a hospital days after he was mauled by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor.
Australia has averaged between two and three fatal shark attacks a year since 2000, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database, a partnership including Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Flinders University and the New South Wales state government.
Shark attack survivor Mel Ismail relaxes in Geraldton, Australia, on Oct. 7, 2026, after losing his lower right leg less than a month earlier. (Chris Lewis/Australian Broadcasting Corp via AP)
Shark attack survivor Mel Ismail looks out at Glenfield Beach near Geraldton, Australia, on Oct. 7, 2026. (Chris Lewis/Australian Broadcasting Corp via AP)
