The Peninsula
Doha, Qatar: Chinese sensation Zhang Zhizhen snatched a historic victory with a masterclass performance against seventh seed Lorenzo Musetti, while Marton Fucsovics eliminated two-time champion Roberto Bautista Agut as the Qatar ExxonMobil Open got off to a thrilling start, yesterday.
World No. 48 Zhang - affectionately nicknamed ZZZ, batted against the windy conditions at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex to dismantle Musetti with an emphatic 6-2, 6-0 win.
Zhang’s impressive statistics, featuring 19 winners and successful conversion of six out of nine break points, underlined his commanding presence in the Round of 32 clash which lasted 61 minutes.
“When I’m on court, I’m thinking [I can beat top players],” said Zhang, who became the first Chinese player to win a main draw match in Doha.
“On court I’m giving myself a bit more confidence with how I play and also as time passes I get more confidence... I’m super happy that I played how I played here today, really good, and I believe I can make a deep run here,” Zhang, the highest-ranked Chinese men’s player, said during his on-court interview.
With a season record now standing at 6-6, including a notable quarter-final appearance in Marseille, Zhang eyes a deep run in Doha, where he will face either Botic van de Zandschulp or former Qatar ExxonMobil Open winner Gael Monfils in the next round.
Earlier, Marton Fucsovics delivered a near-perfect performance to overcome two-time Qatar ExxonMobil Open winner Bautista Agut, securing a 6-1, 6-3 victory in just 82 minutes.
Incidentally, it was Fucsovics and Bautista’s second opening round meeting in a row in Qatar. Last year, it was Bautista Agut who emerged victorious, but this time Fucsovics narrowed their head-to-head record to 2-3.
Ranked No. 80, Fucsovics had a first-serve success rate of 69% and converted half of his 10 break-point opportunities. Fucsovics, who notched his 150th win on the ATP Tour, joining Balazs Taroczy (403) as the second Hungarian player in the Open Era to achieve this milestone, is set to take on the No. 4 seed Alexander Bublik in the next round.
Meanwhile, Pavel Kotov made a strong statement by defeating Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego with a convincing 6-2, 7-5 victory. Russian Kotov’s win also marked an impressive turnaround after a second-round loss at the Australian Open last month, as he looks to go deep after entering the Doha event.
In another closely-contested match, Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan edged out Vit Kopriva of the Czech Republic in straight sets, 7-5, 7-6 (6).
Alexei Popyrin of Australia also advanced, staging an impressive comeback to defeat Abdullah Shelbayh of Jordan.
Popyrin, facing an early setback after dropping the first set 3-6, regained his momentum and fought back to take the second set 6-3 before securing the deciding set 6-4.
Today’s line-up will begin with an exciting Round of 32 clash between J. Mensik and the fifth seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Three former champions will also start their journeys.
Alexander Shevchenko will face wildcard entrant Richard Gasquet, the winner of the 2013 tournament, while three-time grand slam champion and two-time Doha title winner Andy Muller will take on qualifier Alexander Muller.
Gael Monfils, champion in the 2018 event, also will be in action when he takes on Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.