Zhizhen Zhang of China beat Hubert Hurkacz of Poland 3-6 6-4 7-6(4) in the primary spherical of the Japan Open in Tokyo on Wednesday, October 18. Hurkacz, who gained the Shanghai Masters final weekend, thus suffered a shock defeat at the palms of the 27-year-old Chinese.
Zhang will tackle Aslan Karatsev of Russia in the second spherical on Thursday, October 19. The highly effective Russian is a formidable participant, however Zhang will fancy his probabilities of going deep into the event.
On that notice, allow us to have a look at two things that stood out in the match between Zhang and Hurkacz:
#1 Hurkacz used his forehand and drop photographs nicely in the primary set
Hurkacz is understood to own a robust serve, however used his refined contact nicely in the primary set to get a break of serve and thereby gained the primary set. The tall Pole used his drop photographs nicely to tug the Chinese into the web repeatedly.
He additionally stored hitting his forehand with plenty of energy and hit eight winners off that wing in the primary set itself. At the tip of the set, Hurkacz regarded nicely and actually on prime and Zhang wanted a particular effort to get again into the match.
#2 Zhang’s groundstrokes and volleying gained him the match
Zhang began the second set badly, too, as Hurkacz broke him early to take a 3-1 lead. However, the Chinese then broke again to degree the rating and obtained one other break to win the second set. He then matched Hurkacz stroke for stroke in the third set and took it right into a tie-break.
Zhang raced to a 4-0 lead in the tie-break, however Hurkacz then fought again to scale back the deficit to 4-5. However, the Chinese then gained the following two factors to complete the match off, as Hurkacz tried to place an excessive amount of energy behind an inside-out forehand and hit it huge.
Zhang exhibited some clear putting in the final two units, along with his down-the-line backhand being significantly good. The Chinese additionally rushed to the web fairly regularly to complete factors with volleys.
Zhang, fairly unexpectedly, out-aced Hurkacz with 10 aces in the match, whereas the latter was in a position to hit solely 5. The Pole put in a relatively disappointing efficiency so far as his serve was involved on the day, as he was in a position to win solely 38% of the factors on his second serve in the match. Zhang, in the meantime, gained 57% of the factors on his second serve.
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