{"id":95273,"date":"2026-01-07T08:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=95273"},"modified":"2026-01-07T08:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:18:08","slug":"atp-hong-kong-day-4-predictions-bublik-van-de-zandschulp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/07\/atp-hong-kong-day-4-predictions-bublik-van-de-zandschulp\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Hong Kong Day 4 Predictions Including Alexander Bublik vs Botic van de Zandschulp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Four exciting second-round matches are scheduled on Day 4 of the ATP Hong Kong Open, including the match of #2 seed <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/03\/03\/alexander-bublik-underrated-maverick\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Alexander Bublik<\/a>, who has a tough match against Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands. As always, we at LWOT will offer predictions for every match on the slate, but who will advance?<\/p>\n<h2>ATP Hong Kong Day 4 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Lorenzo Sonego vs Juncheng Shang<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Both these players are off to a good start this week, but Juncheng Shang was more impressive as he did not get broken in his match against Francisco Comesana. Shang is a crowd favourite in Hong Kong and has played excellent tennis at this tournament in the last two editions. I expect him to trouble Sonego with his lefty serve and speed. The Italian has more firepower but can be inconsistent and spray errors from the baseline.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Shang in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Alexandre Muller vs Marcos Giron<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Defending champion Alexandre Muller faced a tough opponent in the first match but played well to win in straight sets. He hit 29 winners and served at a high rate to keep Miomir Kecmanovic at bay. Marcos Giron made a fantastic debut at the Hong Kong Open, losing just two games against Laslo Djere. Both these players have a similar game style, and it would come down to who can execute their shots better. Muller is on a 6-match win streak here, but I am backing Giron.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Giron in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a  id=\"D7h94eKGQ91HX5OpVjL5Qg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2254288791\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'D7h94eKGQ91HX5OpVjL5Qg',sig:'izV0jgfSLQzqX0UEhIjPrHzAmXQXP5sWjhcmTJJuZMc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2254288791',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Karen Khachanov vs Michael Mmoh<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: Khachanov 0-1 Mmoh<\/p>\n<p>#4 seed Karen Khachanov, with few points to defend in the first few months of this year, has a decent chance to improve his ranking. He has never won a match at this tournament and will be looking to end that streak and get off to a solid start. Michael Mmoh has already played three matches here, which should benefit him. He also won their only meeting back in 2023. However, Khachanov is a much more experienced player, and with his big serve and powerful groundstrokes, he is the favourite.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Khachanov in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Alexander Bublik vs Botic van de Zandschulp<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: Bublik 1-2 Zandschulp<\/p>\n<p>Alexander Bublik enjoyed a great 2025 season and will be looking to achieve even greater things this season. If he can remain focused, he will be a nightmare to face this week and further with his big serve and unpredictability. Botic van de Zandschulp has beaten Bublik twice in the past, but the Kazakh player is a better player now. I can see this going three sets, but Bublik has more weapons to rely on in clutch moments.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Bublik in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four exciting second-round matches are scheduled on Day 4 of the ATP Hong Kong Open, including the match of #2 seed Alexander Bublik, who has a tough match against Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands. As always, we at LWOT will offer predictions for every match on the slate, but who will advance? ATP [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5086,"featured_media":61114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[510,15492,13556,16824,41785,4657,9553,15938,17300,17301,844,15516,2404,15736,6915,15681,389,17514,2373,2369],"class_list":["post-95273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-alexander-bublik","tag-alexander-bublik-predictions","tag-alexandre-muller","tag-alexandre-muller-predictions","tag-atp-hong-kong-predictions","tag-atp-predictions","tag-botic-van-de-zandschulp","tag-botic-van-de-zandschulp-predictions","tag-juncheng-shang","tag-juncheng-shang-predictions","tag-karen-khachanov","tag-karen-khachanov-predictions","tag-lorenzo-sonego","tag-lorenzo-sonego-predictions","tag-marcos-giron","tag-marcos-giron-predictions","tag-michael-mmoh","tag-michael-mmoh-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95273"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95285,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95273\/revisions\/95285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}