Mikhail Youzhny and Lukas Rosol will contest their Shenzhen openers on Tuesday. They are set for respective meetings with Aljaz Bedene and Denis Istomin.
(7) Aljaz Bedene vs. Mikhail Youzhny
At 33 years old, Youzhny appears to be on his last legs heading into the home stretch of this 2015 campaign. The Russian is struggling down at No. 91 in the world with a horrendous 9-21 record at the ATP level this season. He at least managed to post a few decent results this summer, reaching the Montreal third round as a qualifier and the U.S. Open second round. Youzhny’s fall swing began with an opening loss to Tommy Robredo in St. Petersburg.
The former world No. 8 will kick off his Shenzhen Open campaign on Tuesday with a first-ever contest against Bedene. Registering at a career-high ranking of 55th, Bedene owns 14 of his 35 career ATP-level match victories this season. The Slovenian-turned-Brit advanced two rounds in Winston-Salem and one in New York before losing in the Metz opening round to Gilles Muller. Youzhny’s game is suited for indoor hard courts thanks to his flat ball-striking, so do not be surprised if he pulls off what would only be a slight upset of the No. 7 seed.
Pick: Youzhny in 3
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Denis Istomin vs. Lukas Rosol
Istomin and Rosol will be squaring off for the third time in their careers and for the first time in three years when they meet again on Tuesday. Their two previous encounters ended with almost identical scorelines, albeit with opposite winners. Istomin got the job done 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 on the clay courts of Hamburg in 2010 before Rosol prevailed 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 at the 2012 Moscow event on indoor hard courts.
Neither man is playing particularly well at the moment. Ranked 60th in the world, Istomin is coming off a second-round finish at the U.S. Open and quarterfinal showing in St. Petersburg. In between he returned to clay for a Davis Cup tie against the visiting United States, during which he beat Steve Johnson and lost to Jack Sock. Rosol is an awful 15-25 at the ATP level in 2015. The 90th-ranked Czech even went back to the Challenger last week and lost a first-rounder to Ti Chen. On an indoor hard court, though, Rosol should have a slight edge if he turns in a solid serving performance.
Pick: Rosol in 3
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Taking Bedene in 2 tight sets but now I’m leaning toward Youzhny but I’ll keep it just because I already had it and I’m going with istomin in two somewhat tight sets because I think he is playing better than rosol right now. At least that’s what it seems like to me.
Really no match worth watching today. WTA Wuhan had better matches than the ones being played on ATP tour today.
Dang it I was pulling for youznhy
Wow zhizhen zhang wins on his ATP debut!! Lol vesely is now gonna play a zhang for a second straight match. That should be comfortable win for jiri but this guy must be impressive to win in straights over an experienced player on his ATP debut so he may pose some problems. That would be insane if he were to pull off the upset. He’s already basically playing with house money anyways so he probably won’t be nervous against vesely.
Oh and how about mannarino crushing Pouille! He must not have been playing too well.