Damien Kayat previews Cameron Norrie vs J.J. Wolff and Frances Tiafoe vs Lorenzo Sonego in Selected Round of 64 Matches of the Shanghai Masters on the 7th of October 2023.
2023 ATP Tour
Masters 1000
Shanghai Masters
Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, Shanghai, China (Outdoor Hardcourt)
Selected Round of 64 Matches- 7th October
Hubert Hurkacz 46/100 | Thanasi Kokkinakis 6/4
This has really been a so-so campaign for 26-year-old Hubert Hurkacz. The big-serving Pole began the season in decent fashion, helping to guide Poland to the semi-finals of the United Cup before claiming his 6th career title in Marseille.
But his season plateaued quite significantly after that and it wasn’t until a brilliant semi-final run in Canada that we got to see what he is truly made of. But that result was an outlier in an otherwise underwhelming North American hardcourt season (he lost to Draper in the 2nd round of the US Open).
His latest loss to Tiafoe in the Laver Cup took his record for the season to 30-22. But there is no doubting Hurkacz’s Masters 1000 pedigree. He won the Miami Open in 2021 and reached the final in Montreal last season. I feel like he needs to add slightly more nuance to his power-based game.
Like Auger-Alisssime, Hurkacz can become slightly one-dimensional and he needs another facet if he wants to become a consistent presence in the top 10.
27-year-old Aussie maverick Thanasi Kokkinakis looked impressive in his emphatic first-round demolition of veteran Fabio Fognini. Let’s be real – the talented Aussie has certainly underachieved throughout his career.
He actually possesses a very similar game to that of Hurkacz. He relies on a mammoth serve and thunderous groundstrokes to keep points concise. But he tends to get too gung-ho and commits buckets of unforced errors.
He actually started the season quite well by reaching a semi-final at the Adelaide 2 event. But since then he has been poor at tour-level, managing to pick up some decent results at Challenger level. Can he harness something from that Fognini victory and finally realize his potential?
Verdict: Kokkinakis to win in three
Hurkacz leads the head-to-head with Kokkinakis 2-0. Both of those matches came this year but they both turned out to be three-set epics. Kokkinakis seems to enjoy trading brutal baseline blows with Hurkacz and I think there is some upset potential here.
Hurkacz hasn’t been too active of late and Kokkinakis has the type of explosive game that can catch you cold. The Aussie just needs to make sure that first-serve percentage keeps ticking over.
Felix Auger-Aliassime TBA | Marton Fucsovics TBA
What on earth has happened to World No.15 Felix Auger-Aliassime? A former Grand Slam semi-finalist, Auger-Aliassime seemed to have turned a corner in 2022. The Canadian had developed a reputation for lacking BMT but he managed to win his first four titles last year.
But this year has seen Auger-Aliassime crash heavily down to earth. To put it into context, he hasn’t won consecutive tour-level matches since a quarterfinal run at the Indian Wells Masters! He has won just three matches in 11 tournaments since Indian Wells. That’s insane.
I feel like he’s currently paying the price for playing too much tennis over the past three years. I think it is probably quite dispiriting for Auger-Aliassime- long-touted as a potential World No.1- to see the likes of Alcaraz and Sinner going far beyond him. He lost to 3rd seed Holger Rune last week and he will be hoping that he can make the most of this more favourable draw.
Hungarian Marton Fucsovics has been in comparable form to Auger-Aliassime. He seemed to have turned a corner mid-year, reaching the semi-finals in Stuttgart before a 3rd round run in Wimbledon. He has only won two games at the highest level since that Wimbledon run.
I have said this before- Fucsovics’ obsession with becoming the most ripped tennis player in the world is probably ruining his longevity. There’s a reason that your average tennis player doesn’t look like an NFL running back. It’s just not a durable build for the rigours of professional tennis.
He just won a cushy opener against 258th ranked Kazakh qualifier Denis Yevseyev and he will feel confident of pulling off an upset against an out of sorts Auger-Aliassime.
Verdict: Focsovics to win in three
Auger-Aliassime leads the head-to-head 2-1. All of those results came on hardcourts but they haven’t met since 2021. I really think there’s some potential for a Fucsovics upset win. He is a consistent baseliner who generally looks to wear down his opponents. That consistency of shot could force Auger-Aliassime into plenty of errors.
