ATP Tokyo Tournament, 1st Round, Wednesday, 10/18/2023
Hubert Hurkacz travels to the Japan Open as the newly crowned Shanghai Masters champion. He defeated Andrey Rublev in the final after three thrilling sets. After a short breather he will now play in Tokyo.
There he will play directly against an opponent who already had him on the brink of defeat in Shanghai: Zhizhen Zhang.
The race for the starting spots at the ATP Finals is an exciting affair. Hurkacz is now another player very close as the Pole grabbed the 1,000 points in Shanghai last Sunday.
As the world number one, he now moves on to Tokyo. Before the tournament begins, he is about 700 points behind eighth-ranked Casper Ruud. Since Hurkacz still had to play on Sunday, the first round will not start for him until Wednesday.
The first round is not likely to be a walk in the park. After all, he will meet Zhang (2.40 odds), who engaged Hurkacz in a long match in Shanghai. There they played out the fourth round. Interwetten sees the Shanghai champion just ahead: 1.50.
In the end, he played six games in ten days, three of which went over three sets. In addition to Zhang and Rublev, he also had to play out a third set against Fabian Marozsan.
He also defeated Sebastian Korda, Yu Hsiou Hsu and Thanasi Kokkinakis on his way to triumph. In Shanghai, Hurkacz felt extremely comfortable. This was partly due to the fast courts of the facility.
With his strong first serve, he created numerous free points against the competition. In the final alone, he hit 21 aces, while Zhang had to chase down 16 points in his 6-7, 6-4, 6-7 defeat.
Besides Rublev, nobody could be as dangerous as Hurkacz. The Chinese player allowed just two breaks and gave the Pole only four chances, a strong performance! He himself had six chances.
Zhang was in the match and only lost in the tiebreaks. Another set win at 1.56 odds at Winamax is definitely in the cards. Especially since the conditions in Tokyo are slower, which should definitely suit him.
For another tiebreak in the duel Hurkacz versus Zhang, Winamax has 2.00 odds on offer. Already in 2019, the two tennis stars met in Shanghai, played out the first round as now in Tokyo. There, too, it was a tiebreak: 7-6, 6-4 for Hurkacz.
The set was not won then. At that time, however, Zhang was still at a much weaker level, ranked 179 in the world, currently he is ranked 57.
His results this year have been impressive. At the US Open, he defeated Ruud in five rounds, and he also reached the quarterfinals of the Masters in Madrid.
Before Hurkacz defeated him in Shanghai, he beat Richard Gasquet, Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Brandon Nakashima. His form curve is pointing upwards!
My Zhang Hurkacz Tip
One week after the last duel, Zhang and Hurkacz meet again right on the court. However, this time it is the slightly slower of Tokyo that should suit the Chinese more.
After all, the newly-crowned Masters champion from Shanghai will come to significantly fewer service winners and free points. Another advantage for the Chinese is the fact that Hurkacz had to play three more matches after the match against Zhang.
Will he have the necessary freshness in Tokyo? At least he was given time to breathe with Wednesday’s scheduling, but the signs are in favor of Zhang, who I even believe will win. However, Winamax already delivers strong odds for the set win.
My Zhang Hurkacz tip: Set win for Zhang!
