The last of the seeded players will get their Shanghai campaigns underway on Saturday, including Ugo Humbert and Grigor Dimitrov. Humbert awaits Botic van de Zandschulp, while Dimitrov is going up against Aleksandar Vukic.
Botic van de Zandschulp vs. (32) Ugo Humbert
Both Humbert and Van de Zandschulp have been wildly inconsistent in 2023 as they prepare to face each other for the first time on the main tour in round two of the Rolex Shanghai Masters on Saturday. However, it is Humbert whose season appears to be wrapping up in decent enough fashion. The 34th-ranked Frenchman reached the semifinals in Newport, the semifinals in Atlanta, the quarterfinals in Washington, D.C., the quarterfinals in Beijing, and went 2-1 in Davis Cup competition with wins over Cameron Norrie and Stan Wawrinka.
Van de Zandschulp has seemingly never recovered from one of the collapses of the year–against Holger Rune in the Munich final at the beginning of the clay-court swing. Dating back to that 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(3) loss, the 67th-ranked Dutchman 5-11 in his last 16 matches and picked up just three wins at tournaments (two came in Davis Cup). Van de Zandschulp did well to beat Christopher O’Connell 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-4 on Thursday, but he has not won back-to-back matches since Munich. Humbert should have the edge in this one.
Pick: Humbert in 2
(18) Grigor Dimitrov vs. Aleksandar Vukic
Dimitrov and Vukic will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers and for the second time this season when they meet again on Saturday. They previously squared off in Queen’s Club qualifying, where Dimitrov prevailed 6-3, 6-4.
This has been Vukic’s best year on tour by a mile, but he is stumbling a bit toward the finish following a hot hard-court summer. The 54th-ranked Australian was 1-4 in his last five matches going into Shanghai, where he opened with a 6-4, 7-6(7) defeat of Roberto Carballes Baena. Dimitrov, on the other hand, is rolling along nicely. The 32-year-old Bulgarian has won multiple matches at three consecutive events and in eight of his last nine dating back to Geneva in late May. Vukic doesn’t have the firepower to hit through Dimitrov even if he serves well and the world No. 19 is the more consistent of the two from the back of the court right now. This will likely be one-way traffic.
Pick: Dimitrov in 2
WWW?
I have Humbert going far .
How did JP Morgan get court signage at Shanghai Masters? And American Express.
You wouldn’t expect that in current environment. Maybe it’s controlled by the ATP and they have no say in the matter.
Noticed my good man, Safiullin, destroyed the bit one-dimensionalar times, Zverev.
He’ll go deep in a grand slam or master’s soon.
“at times”
have to agree; Humbert in 2, Dtrov in 2.