20 Things To Watch In Chengdu & Shenzhen

The ATP World Tour’s Asian swing kicks off with a pair of 250-level events on Chinese soil: the Chengdu Open and the Shenzhen Open. World No. 7 Dominic Thiem is the top seed in Chengdu, while fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev leads the field in Shenzhen.

View Draws: Chengdu | Shenzhen

10 THINGS TO WATCH IN CHENGDU
(1) Asian Swing Gets Underway: The ATP World Tour returns to China with hard-court events in Chengdu and Shenzhen. The host nation boasts a pair of players in both singles main draws: Yibing Wu and Di Wu are in Chengdu, while Ze Zhang and Zhizhen Zhang are in Shenzhen.

(2) China’s Rising Star: Yibing Wu makes his ATP main draw debut against Thiago Monteiro on Monday. Wu, 17, won three titles in a nine-day span earlier this month, sweeping boys’ singles and doubles at the US Open before flying to Shanghai and capturing his first Challenger title without dropping a set. Wu is the first Chinese player to win a Grand Slam boys’ singles title and is the first teenage winner from his country on the ATP Challenger Tour. Learn more about the 17 year old

(3) No. 1 Again: Dominic Thiem, who was the top seed at the inaugural Chengdu Open in 2016, returns as the No. 1 seed this week. Thiem won his eighth career title in Rio de Janeiro in February. With a 46-20 record on the season, the Austrian is fourth in the Emirates ATP Race To London.

(4) Finalists Return: Defending Chengdu champion Karen Khachanov and runner-up Albert Ramos-Vinolas are seeded third and second respectively. Khachanov edged Ramos-Vinolas one year ago for his first ATP World Tour title. Should they meet again this week, it will be in the semi-finals on Saturday.

(5) Russian Emergence: Khachanov and countryman Andrey Rublev are next in line to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals at No. 3 and No. 2 respectively in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan. Rublev became the first current #NextGenATP player to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final at the US Open.

(6) #NextGenATP Invasion: Among the other #NextGenATP players in the Chengdu field are Jared Donaldson, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Borna Coric. Tsitsipas, a 19-year-old qualifier, is 0-5 in tour-level matches and seeking the first ATP World Tour win of his career against Donaldson, who is 18-17 in 2017.

(7) First-Time Champion: Peter Gojowczyk of Germany earned a special exempt entry after capturing his first ATP World Tour title in his first final on Sunday in Metz. Gojowczyk beat Benoit Paire to become the first qualifier to lift a trophy since Nicolas Mahut in ’s-Hertogenbosch in 2015.

(8) Unlikely Qualifier: Wimbledon doubles finalist Mate Pavic entered the Chengdu qualifying draw as an alternate, then defeated Yasutaka Uchiyama and Zihao Xia to earn a spot in the main draw. Pavic is unranked in singles and had not played a singles match all season until Saturday.

(9) The Other Wu: Joining Yibing Wu in the singles main draw is Di Wu (no relation), who meets #NextGenATP qualifier Taylor Fritz on Monday. The elder Wu, 26, seeks his first tour-level win of the season. Also competing together in doubles, Wu and Wu earned one of two wild cards, along with Fajing Sun and Rigele Te.

(10) Doubles Round-up: Thiem, Ramos-Vinolas, Coric and the team of Khachanov/Rublev are also in the doubles field. The No. 1 seeds are Pavic and Oliver Marach, who fell to Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 13-11 in the fifth set of the Wimbledon final after four hours and 39 minutes.

10 THINGS TO WATCH IN SHENZHEN 
(1) ATP Back in China: The ATP World Tour returns to China with 250-level events this week in Shenzhen and Chengdu. The host nation boasts a pair of players in both singles main draws: Ze Zhang and Zhizhen Zhang are playing in Shenzhen, while Yibing Wu and Di Wu are in Chengdu.

(2) One-Year Anniversary: On Monday, No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev celebrates the one-year anniversary of his first ATP World Tour championship. Zverev was ranked No. 27 when he won the St. Petersburg title on September 25, 2016. The 20-year-old is now ranked a career-high No. 4.

(3) Running Two Races: Zverev is tied with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer for the ATP World Tour lead with five titles in 2017. The #NextGenATP superstar is third in the Emirates ATP Race to London and first in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan. Zverev has already qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held Nov. 7-11, and is next in line to earn a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals at The O2 from Nov. 12-19.

(4) Year of the Zverevs: It’s been a career-year for third seed Mischa Zverev too. The elder Zverev brother reached the third round at Wimbledon, fourth round at the US Open and quarter-finals at the Australian Open, where he upset then-No. 1 Andy Murray. He broke into the Top 25 in July. He opens against either Dudi Sela or Matthew Ebden.

(5) Outside Looking In: Second seed David Goffin is currently 13th in the Emirates ATP Race To London. But with No. 5 Stan Wawrinka and No. 9 Novak Djokovic out for the season, Goffin is only three spots outside the cut-off for qualification at the eight-man Nitto ATP Finals. The 26-year-old Belgian has not reached a semi-final since injuring his right ankle at Roland Garros on June 2.

(6) Record-Setter: Fourth seed Paolo Lorenzi made history at the US Open earlier this month. The 35-year-old Italian became the oldest player in the Open Era to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time. Lorenzi is also the oldest first-time champion in ATP World Tour history (2016 Kitzbuehel). He opens against either Rogerio Dutra Silva or Zhizhen Zhang.

(7) First-Time Champion: Sixth seed Damir Dzumhur debuts in Shenzhen after capturing his first ATP World Tour title in St. Petersburg on Sunday and rising to a career-high No. 40 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Four weeks earlier, Dzumhur played in his first final at Winston-Salem. The Bosnian is 12-2 since August 21.

(8) Local Favourites: Ze Zhang, 27, is one of two Chinese players to reach an ATP World Tour quarter-final in the Open Era, doing so at 2012 Beijing (also Bing Pan at 1995 Seoul). Zhizhen Zhang, 20, defeated Go Soeda at 2015 Shenzhen for his only ATP main draw victory. The Zhangs are not related.

(9) International Man of Mystery: Austrian-born Spaniard Nicola Kuhn’s ATP World Tour debut comes in China as a wild card at the Shenzhen Open. Kuhn, born on March 20, 2000, will be the second player with a 21st-century birthdate to contest an ATP World Tour match after 16-year-old Rudolf Molleker at Hamburg. He is one of four 17 year olds to lift an ATP Challenger Tour trophy this, having prevailed in Braunschweig, Germany. Learn more about Kuhn

(10) Getting to Know You: The Top 3 doubles seeds are first-time teams, including the third-seeded duo of fourth-ranked singles player Alexander Zverev and third-ranked doubles player Marcelo Melo. The unlikely tandem will debut against Hans Podlipnik-Castillo and Andrei Vasilevski.