Who are you, Zheng?

Does the young American have the weapons to bother his elder? Not sure, in my opinion.

Zheng is about to play the first Grand Slam main draw of his career, a special context that can generate as much excitement as tension. Nevertheless, his recent performances in qualifying have been convincing and he has nothing to lose here. He’s riding the momentum of the end of his 2025 season with a lot of wins, having really started on tour only last year after a college career. He’s relatively light-built with good movement and solid baseline play, though without a truly big weapon. A profile that might seem ideal for Korda.

The older of the two Americans is playing it pretty standard at the start of this season, in my opinion. The level of play is there, but there’s a recurring fragility in the important moments. Some (very) bad decisions against Michelsen at the end of the match in Brisbane, then a match he let slip away in a rather improbable manner in Adelaide against Kokkinakis.

For Zheng, the confidence from qualifying and his lack of pressure could allow him to cause problems for a Korda who is sometimes prone to more uneven patches. Nevertheless, I still see a scenario where Korda does everything too well and above all too quickly for Zheng, who really has no experience at this level since it will be the very first time he faces a top-50 player.

It’s always hard to trust Korda, who has a knack for making life difficult for himself, but here I still don’t see enough arguments to go for a bet in favor of Zheng.