The WC nugget

Young Wawrinka has been given a WC for this tournament, he seems promising.

More seriously, Stan is one of the eternal players who still deserves to have WCs on the circuit because the level of play is still very present. He has just made super challengers in Europe but unfortunately he made WO in the last match because of a physical problem. Surely the sequence which is hard to assume now and he must now come specially to China for this tournament, I don't like the fact that he did not play a preparation tournament here, it is very different from Europe in terms of conditions, courts etc. Moreover, Wawrinka has only reached the quarter-finals of this tournament twice in 11 participations, a very poor record for a player of his caliber. Completely the opposite of Marozsan who also reached the quarter-finals last year for his first participation. The Hungarian prepared well for this tournament with a good performance in Beijing, he even served for the set against Sinner before cracking! Not surprising given his quality of shot and the fact that the courts were quite slow, which he particularly appreciates. I'm still gauging the courts in Shanghai but it seems quite fast to me which is cool for Wawrinka, if the Swiss can count on his quality of service and free points he will be happy. But I wonder if it's enough to beat a player who will make him move with drop shots and knock him out from the baseline too, it's a great challenge for Stan!