The first round competition at the Shanghai Masters ends on Thursday, when Reilly Opelka starts his campaign against Benjamin Bonzi. An in-shape Alejandro Tabilo qualified for the main drawing and will be confronted with Marcos Giron.
Reilly Opelka vs. Benjamin Bonzi
Bonzi and Opelka will get it against each other for the second time in their career and for the first time in seven years when they finally meet again in round in the Rolex Shanghai Masters on Thursday. Their only earlier meeting came at the Clay-Court Challenger event 2018 in Bordeaux, where Opelka prevailed with 6-4, 6-4.
It is Bonzi who now has the momentum. The 48th ranking made a run to the fourth round of Cincinnati and had a memorable US Open, where he made Daniil Medvedev in Wild Five-Setter and then beat Marcos Giron in five before he fell to Arthur Rindernech. Opelka, on the other hand, has not won a competition since Cincinnati; He immediately lost to the US Open and fell at Casper Ruud at the Laver Cup. Unless the 6’11 ”American serves incredibly well, Bonzi should have the lead in this.
Choose: Bonzi in 3
Mark Girir (Q) Alejander Water
Nobody has played more tennis on the Asian swing than Tabilo. The 74th ranking Chileen finished in second place at the Guangzhou Challenger, conquered the ATP 250 Chengdu title as a qualification, lost in the first round from Tokyo to Zizou Bergs in a third set of Tiebreak and successfully qualified for the Shanghai Main Draw. You may think that fatigue would be a factor at the moment, but Tabilo just makes up for lost time after missing so many of the 2025 campaign due to injury.
Next to the left-handed on Thursday is a second meeting with Giron, who lost 6-3, 7-5 in the qualification of Madrid 2022. The 50th ranking American comes in with a record of 20-22 for the season and he is a disappointing 3-8 in his last 11 games that date from Wimbledon. Tabilo can ultimately no longer have gas, but at the moment he is on a role – and he could maintain it.
Choose: Tabilo in 3
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