Little information, we need to dig deeper

Respectively one match in Adelaide for Cerundolo and two at the United Cup for Zhang, this info is worth its weight in gold

Pretty surprising scheduling choices from Zhang, who played a bunch of exhibitions and only the United Cup to prepare, but at least he’s got some rhythm and a few high-stakes matches under his belt, that’s something. I’ve watched almost all of his matches so I can reasonably say he’s in good form. I’ve seen a solid Chinese player who’s very hard to break and still plays a basic/simple game but one that’s devilishly effective; his serve is his biggest weapon but his forehand is massive too. He does the best he can on the backhand side and moves relatively well for his size; I was also surprised by his level at the net/in the short game — clearly some good work was done in the pre-season and I think he’s flying a bit under the radar for now, but the danger is very real. You could say the same about Cerundolo, who is still a dangerous outsider on any surface, even if the Argentine has really only played one match, and that’s it. I’ve got a lot less info on him; I know he played a great first set against Munar before logically fading, unable to keep his level up over time. This is the 4th meeting between the two players, but it’s hard to use that with two matches on grass in the mix…

I can’t say I like the match-up for Zhang because a switched-on Cerundolo returns better than the tour average, BUT I prefer Cerundolo in the role of aggressor; it’s not ideal when he’s spending his time defending, and in my opinion Zhang is going to push to be the one attacking. His stats against big servers/baseline aggressors aren’t good, and he’s a bit short on rhythm for a first-round match like this. If he’s too big a favorite I’d be wary, and my first idea is to try a back on Zhang at a nice price, let’s go check that out!