A Tricky Opening Round?

Wu is starting to gain some momentum...

But he is not the only one, cause Svrcina is collecting some wins himself. Beating Berrettini and Zhang as a lucky loser in Hangzhou (both in straight sets). Qualified here in Shanghai very easily by beating Zeppieri and Watanuki in straight sets as well. Do you notice a pattern in the wins I just listed? They are all Attacking Baseliners (some Big Servers also), it's clear that Svrcina enjoys the pace and that he can challenge them with his court coverage and variety. Similar to JM Cerundolo, he has quite a weak serve, so the faster courts actually help him a bit by making his serve less vulnerable. And he doesn't need a lot of pace himself when he can redirect it efficiently. He got absolutely destroyed by Bublik, though - why is that? Well, Bublik does that to a lot of people now... he is untouchable on serve (especially since he goes big on 1st and 2nd) and then he was really good at attacking the Svrcina serve, which is something that needs to be done, since it's a major weakness still. Also, variety does not really work against the master of variety...

Everyone knows how talented Wu is; the problem has always been the injuries. An excellent tournament at home in Hangzhou, through a very tough draw: Mannarino - Korda - Medvedev - Bublik (L). So he has already faced two similar profiles there, Mannarino and Medvedev... and both of them took a lot out of him, 3h~ each. He had an MTO against Medvedev for his right shoulder and was pretty roasted against Bublik. At least, he's had a week to recover. Nonetheless, the fact that Wu might not be 100% here is fully plausible, especially since it's an event in China that he probably pushes himself to play unless it's a really bad injury. As for the matchup, it's not the easiest (as Watanuki has experienced now several times), but I trust Yibing against this kind of player a bit more in his decisions. He could've lost to both Mannarino and Medvedev, but those are better players than Svrcina. Still, a tricky opening round against someone coming out flawless from qualifying. Svrcina's matches tend to have WTA scorelines, a lot of 6-3, 6-2, etc, both in his wins and losses. So yes, those who beat him tend to beat him easily, and the ones who struggle with him struggle hard...