We arrive in the third round of the Shenzhen Longhua Open Challenger. Top seeded Soon-Woo Kwon will face Mohamed Safwat. Who is the favorite to advance?
Shenzhen Challenger Day 4 Predictions
Zhizhen Zhang vs Borna Gojo
Head-to-head: First meeting
After failing to register consecutive wins at a tournament from February to July, Borna Gojo has suddenly picked up some steam. The past two weeks. the Croat fell in Ningbo and Liuzhou to just one player–Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The 21-year-old has already picked up another win here, beating qualifier Fabian Reboul.
However, the most impressive round two performance award would have to go to Zhizhen Zhang. He routed Goncalo Oliveira 6-0 6-1 in just 47 minutes. The Chinese won a Challenger title in Jinan last month and proceeded to get a couple of good wins on the main tour (over Dominik Koepfer and Kyle Edmund). It might not come easy but Zhang definitely should be considered the favorite here.
Prediction: Zhang in 3
Go Soeda vs Yan Bai
Head-to-head: Soeda 3-0
Their head-to-head dates back to 2004, and all three meetings ended with Go Soeda coming out victorious. The Japanese has recently defeated Jan-Lennard Struff and gave the world no. 1 Novak Djokovic quite a good fight. Last week’s Ningbo Challenger wasn’t too successful for him though, as Soeda lost his opening round match to Christopher Eubanks.
Yan Bai has had a couple of good Challenger results lately and has the advantage of having one match under his belt already (defeated Khumoyun Sultanov 6-3 7-5). However, Soeda’s showing at the Japan Open was very convincing and you can expect the fourth seed to further expand his head-to-head advantage.
Prediction: Soeda in 2
Yuichi Sugita vs Roman Safiullin
Head-to-head: First meeting
Yuichi Sugita has been held off by injuries in the last year but the Japanese is finally back on the right track. He reached the semifinals two weeks ago at Stockholm Open, losing to Denis Shapovalov, and looked very sharp in his opening match against Fajing Sun here.
Roman Safiullin benefitted of a third set retirement from Denis Istomin. The Russian was one of the standout ITF World Tennis Tour players in the first half of the year but has so far struggled to take that to the main tour. Sugita should continue to cruise.
Prediction: Sugita in 2
Soon-Woo Kwon vs Mohamed Safwat
Head-to-head: First meeting
The top seed, Soon-Woo Kwon, has recently scored wins over Richard Gasquet and Lucas Pouille. The 21-year-old had a breakthrough season, culminated in a top 100 debut. In the second round, he managed to comfortably dispatch Duck-Hee Lee.
Facing him will be Egyptian Mohamed Safwat, who advanced with a comfortable win over Ivan Nedelko. Safwat usually performs best on clay but with his precise point construction, he can do a lot of damage on any surface. This is a potentially dangerous match for the top seed but expect him to rise to the occasion.
Prediction: Kwon in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
