Alex de Minaur vs Nuno Borges Tips, Prediction & Live Stream - Demon to make first Shanghai quarter-final

It's been another remarkably consistent season for de Minaur, who has cemented his top 10 status and positioned himself strongly for another crack at the year-ending ATP Finals in Turin. De Minaur has made at least the R16 at seven of the eight Masters 1000 tournaments in 2025, along with the quarter-finals at both hardcourt slams at the Australian and US Opens. Throw in another ATP 500 title in Washington and de Minaur rightfully deserves his ranking of World No. 7.

The Aussie is the deserved favourite here after building a reputation of usually beating those ranked below him. Borges is an extremely tough competitor and never goes away - in fact, his 15 victories in deciding sets this year is second only to Carlos Alcaraz. However, Borges has gone 0-3 in Masters 1000 events and more worryingly, the Portuguese is 1-14 against top 10 players - with his only win coming against an injured Casper Ruud at Roland Garros earlier this year. Borges will make the Demon work for it, but the Aussie should be coming away with the victory and a maiden Shanghai quarter-final.

This will be the first career meeting between the pair.

De Minaur is one win away from racking up a half-century of victories in 2025, coming into this contest with a 49-17 record on the season.

It's been a career of gradual progress and de Minaur continues to make inroads - he's currently one spot off his peak ranking of No. 6 and a deep run in Shanghai could see him surpass it.

As mentioned, it's been another incredibly consistent season for de Minaur, highlighted by a 10th career title in Washington, a runner-up showing in Rotterdam, quarter-finals at the Australian and US Opens and a semi-final run at the Monte Carlo Masters.

While other top players have dropped like flies in the brutal Shanghai conditions this tournament, de Minaur has hung tough - in fact, he's the second-highest ranked player remaining after Novak Djokovic.

De Minaur has kept his head down and got the job done, easing into the R16 with straight sets victories over Camilo Ugo Carabelli and Kamil Majchrzak.

Borges has managed to tick his season record into the positives this week in Shanghai, coming into this showdown with a 28-27 win-loss showing.

It's been a decent season for Borges, but there hasn't been any real standout tournament - his best result was a semi-final in Auckland and that was his very first tournament of the year.

However, the Portuguese has been relatively consistent at the slams, reaching the third round at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon, while it took Tommy Paul to edge him in five sets in the second round of the US Open.

After a second round loss in Tokyo, Borges started his Shanghai Masters campaign with straight sets victories over Botic Van De Zandschulp and Aleksandar Vukic before outlasting home star Juncheng Shang 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 in a long and energy-sapping third round victory.