Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs Zhizhen Zhang Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Beijing Open

Prediction published on 26/09/2024, 07:11  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 26/09/2024 at 08:09 in Tennis Predictions

Unseeded pair Zhizhen Zhang and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina meet in round one of the hard court China Open. The winner will face either fourth seed Andrey Rublev or Pablo Carreno Busta in round two. Here's our match prediction.

Zhizhen Zhang is the world number 41 and that's ten places below the career high he achieved two months ago. The 27-year-old is in excellent form at present and was the runner-up in Hangzhou.

He lost to Marin Cilic in the final but both sets were determined by a tie-break. That was his first tournament since losing to Jack Draper in the US Open first round after having to retire injured in the third set after losing the first two.

Zhang is up to 40th in the live rankings and also holds that position in the ATP Race. This is his first ever match against his opponent.

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is down at 64th in the latest ranking list but was as high as 21st in August 2023. The Spaniard is a couple of places higher in the ATP Live Race but it's not been a great year for the 25-year-old.

His current form is particularly disappointing and he'll be aiming to avoid a fourth successive defeat, all on hard courts. His most recent tournament was the US Open where he lost in four sets to Rinky Hijikata in the first round.

Fokina will want to recapture the form that took him to the last eight of the Washington hard court tournament in July and get a win over Daniil Medvedev in early August. We tip Zhang to get the win here.