Alexander Zverev will start off his Chengdu Open campaign with a match against Pavel Kotov, hoping to secure the quarter-finals.
Zverev travelled to China for some early Asian swing tennis as he's in quite a battle for a spot in Turin. He currently occupies number 10 in the ranking, and he's eighth in the race, but he also needs to finish in the Top 8 if he hopes to play in Turin.
Chengdu is an event that plays to his strengths because it features some of the faster hard courts on the ATP Tour. The serve is a major weapon and will be crucial in this matchup because both players have a powerful serve, as German has the better one.
He was last in action at the US Open opting to skip Germany's Davis Cup tie. The country won, so it wasn't a huge problem, but he was no fan of having to play on clay in the midst of preparing for a really quick hard court.
Head-to-head:
Zverev and his opponent Pavel Kotov had never played before. It's not a huge surprise because the Russian generally doesn't play on this level but he put together some good matches to secure this matchup against Zverev in the second round.
It will be a complicated matchup because he must play some of his best tennis to win.
Prediction:
Zverev is the huge favourite in this matchup because this court just suits the way he plays. He'll get plenty of free points on his serve; if he serves well, of course. Kotov will get some free points on his own because he has a really solid serve, but every time the rally develops, he'll be in trouble.
His best bet is to try aggressively to make the rallies as short as possible, but I don't see it working out for him.
Prediction: Alexander Zverev to win in two sets.
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