Mr. Zheng!

After he’d gone back to playing in college, here he is qualifying for the main draw after only one official match on clay in 4 years. That’s impressive!

Well then, you also have to credit a nice set of circumstances alongside his good level. An easy first round against a weak Ghibaudo to get him going. A Travaglia who hands over two ends of sets. And finally, a De Jong who never found his real level. With that perspective, you see things differently!

That doesn’t stop Zheng from playing well. I found him good on the return. In rallies, he’s solid too, very few unforced errors and he moves nicely around his backhand to attack. And above all, mentally, he doesn’t flinch at all. On the negative side, he still has one or two games in the match where he quickly hits 2–3 unforced errors. A kind of lapse in concentration.

Those qualities, however, I find average compared to Prizmic. The Croatian shows consistency at a very high level. It’s far superior to anything Zheng faced in qualifying. And to tell you the truth, I don’t really believe in his chances...