The Zhuhai Championships is one of two tournaments being played on Chinese soil this week, running from September 20th to 26th.
The draw for the ATP 250 event has just been released, promising a number of intriguing matches as early as day one. The biggest draw at the event Daniil Medvedev withdrew prior to the tournament, so the seeds have shuffled a bit.
Karen Khachanov is now the top seed and the foreman in the top half of the draw. He starts off his campaign in the second round against one of Diego Schwartzman or a qualifier. Khachanov has a losing record against the Argentine, but Schwartzman is no longer the force he once was and will be overwhelmed by the Russian's brute firepower if they meet.
Fourth seed Sebastian Korda is Khachanov's projected semifinal opponent. But the American's underwhelming US Open campaign means that he's vulnerable to an upset as early as his first match, where he could play the winner of Rinky Hijikata or Alexandre Muller - two rapidly improving players.
Second seed Cameron Norrie is looking to get his season back on track. The British lefty is clearly suffering a crisis in confidence after losing two singles rubbers at the Davis Cup this past week, Thankfully his countrymen bailed him out.
Norrie, however, will have to do it all alone in Zhuhai. He is guaranteed to face a qualifier in his first match, and he is projected to meet fellow Brit Andy Murray in the quarterfinals, provided the seedings hold. Murray begins his campaign against home wild card Ye Cong Mo.
This tournament will mark the return to competition for Madrid Masters finalist Jan-Lennard Struff. The big-serving German picked up an untimely injury when he was at the top of his game. Struff hasn't featured since June, and is likely to lock horns with Cristian Garin in his first match back, provided the Chilean will beat wild card Yi Zhou in his opener.
Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka will take on the newest member of the world's Top 150, Terence Atmane, who won his second Challenger title in Guangzhou at the weekend. Atmane is 11-1 on Chinese soil since the end of August, but it will be the young Frenchman's ATP main draw debut when he confronts World No. 46 Nishioka.
There will be aces galore when Lloyd Harris takes on Czech lefty Jiri Vesely. And Chinese fans will tune in to watch one of their own when 18-year-old Next Gen star Shang Juncheng plays American Top 50 player Mackenzie McDonald.
2023 Zhuhai Championships ATP Draw:
| 1. Karen Khachanov (1) |
| 2. BYE |
| 3. Qualifier |
| 4. Diego Schwartzman |
| 5. Aleksandar Kovacevic |
| 6. Kimmer Coppejans |
| 7. Juncheng Shang |
| 8. Mackenzie McDonald (6) |
| 9. Sebastian Korda (4) |
| 10. BYE |
| 11. Alexandre Muller |
| 12. Rinky Hijikata |
| 13. Zhe Li |
| 14. Dalibor Svrcina |
| 15. Qualifier |
| 16. Tomas Martin Etcheverry (5) |
| 17. Yoshihito Nishioka (8) |
| 18. Terence Atmane |
| 19. Lloyd Harris |
| 20. Jiri Vesely |
| 21. Yi Zhou |
| 22. Cristian Garin |
| 23. BYE |
| 24. Jan-Lennard Struff (3) |
| 25. Andy Murray (7) |
| 26. Ye Cong Mo |
| 27. Matteo Arnaldi |
| 28. Aslan Karatsev |
| 29. Qualifier |
| 30. Qualifier |
| 31. BYE |
| 32. Cameron Norrie (2) |
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