Rafael Nadal will continue his Beijing campaign when he goes up against Karen Khachanov on Thursday. The remaining second-round schedule also includes a showdown between Alexander Zverev and Fabio Fognini.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. Karen Khachanov
It was Nadal who came close to getting bounced of this tournament right away. The top-seeded Spaniard twice was within one point of defeat against Lucas Pouille, but he fought back to win 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 after two hours and 31 minutes. Nadal is now 57-9 this year with Grand Slam titles at the French Open and U.S. Open. He should be able to pick up the pace in this one and extend Khachanov’s woes with much less than trouble than he endured against Pouille.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 8 games or fewer
[polldaddy poll=9843909]
Fabio Fognini vs. (2) Alexander Zverev
At No. 4 in the race to London and in the world, Zverev can coast into a debut appearance at the World Tour Finals. Nonetheless, he is showing signs of employing the Dominic Thiem school of thinking and playing at just about every opportunity. Following Laver Cup duty for the victorious Team Europe, the 20-year-old German played in Shenzhen (lost to Damir Dzumhur in the quarterfinals after outlasting Steve Darcis in a thriller) and has turned up this week in Beijing prior to the upcoming Shanghai Masters. Having lost early in Shenzhen, a somewhat rested Zverev defeated Kyle Edmund 6-3, 7-6(3) on Tuesday.
Next up for the No. 2 seed on Thursday is second career contest against Fognini. They recently faced each other for the first time this spring on the red clay of Rome. where Zverev cruised 6-3, 6-3. Fognini is a solid 31-19 in 2017 following his opening 7-6(4), 6-2 win over Robin Haase and his fall swing began with a runner-up showing in St. Petersburg. But the 26th-ranked Italian will try to trade huge-hitting blows with Zverev and that will once again not work out well for him.
Pick: Zverev in 2
[polldaddy poll=9844344]
Their h2h is 6:0 to Rafa. Rafa needs to hold on to his serves; play like he did against Khachanov today and if Rafa fails to break Isner, then he’ll have a good chance in TBs where Isner won’t be able to redeem mini breaks against him.
I don’t know if Isner can replicate his performance against Rafa in the Laver Cup match. Rafa seemed uncomfortable from the start of that match. Isner was in a good serving rhythm.
When Rafa managed to break back late in that first set only to play a very poor gene and get broken right back again, that was a bad sign.
I think Rafa will do better should he meet Isner. I haven’t been able to see Rafa’s matches so far. The time difference and scheduling makes it hard to follow the matches.
I hope Rafa can play aggressive tennis.