Zaden Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina start their Shanghai campaigns as the second round competition continues on Saturday. They are respectively opposite Alejandro Tabilo and Matteo Arnaldi.
(12) Felix auger-aliassime versus (Q) Alejandro Tabilo
Nobody has won more competitions in the Asian swing than Tabilo. The 74th Rangschilde Chileen finished in second place at the Guangzhou Challenger, captured the ATP 250 Chengdu title as a qualification, lost in the first round of Tokyo to Zizou Bergs in a third set of Tiebreak, qualified for the main drawing of Shanghai in the first round.
Next for Tabilo on Saturday is a very first meeting with Auger-Aliassime in the Rolex Shanghai Masters second round. The last few weeks of a completely different story for the 13th ranking list, which married in September and played not a single match on the Asian Swing. Of course it is not like Auger-Aliassime forgets how to play tennis and he can still take confidence of a semi-final run at the US Open. Roest can be a factor early, but a well-moved Auger-Aliassy may benefit from an opponent who has to run on vapors.
Pick: Auger-Aliassime in 3
(18) Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Matteo Arnaldi
Davidovich Fokina and Arnaldi will be in their career for the fourth time on Saturday. Arnaldi leads the head-to-head series 2-1, although one of his victories came via third set with the Montreal Masters 2024. The Italian also had the upper hand on 6-1, 6-3 on the inside hard courts of Dallas at the beginning of 2025 before Davidovich Fokina scored the most of the 6-4, 6-4 wins in the final victory.
A considerable lead in the current form goes to Davidovich Fokina, whose hard summer took a second place in Washington, DC and an attempt by the fourth round in Toronto. The 20th rank Spaniard has lost its opening match just two of his last 10 tournaments. Arnaldi succeeded in beating Rei Sakamoto with 7-6 (3), 6-4 on Thursday, but he is still only 5-10 in his last 10 games that date from Roland Garros. Davidovich Fokina is now just the superior player and should achieve a second consecutive victory over the world No. 71.
Pick: Davidovich Fokina and 2
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