Alejandro Davidovich awaits Rublev in 2R of Beijing | ATP Tour

Beijing

Davidovich awaits Rublev at 2R in Beijing

Bautista also advanced to the second round, while Carreño was left at the gates

September 27, 2024

Up to a total of six Spanish players started in the main draw of this edition of the China Open and three of them will be in the second round. The last one to successfully make his debut at the ATP 500 in Beijing was Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

The Spaniard achieved an important victory 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and one minute against Zhizhen Zhang, a player who had just signed the final at the Hangzhou Open a few days ago.

Davidovich achieved his third victory of the season against an opponent from the Top 50. And in addition to beating No. 41 in the PIF ATP Rankings, this year he has also beaten No. 9 Hubert Hurkacz in the United Cup and No. 5 Daniil Medvedev in Montreal.

The 25-year-old Andalusian debuted his record of victories in the Lexus ATP Head2Head against Zhang in the first face-to-face confrontation between the two. Davidovich also managed to end a streak of three consecutive losses since he had to withdraw in the third round of the ATP Masters 1000 in Canada.

Davidovich, who has already equaled his result in his only previous participation in Beijing (second round in 2023, l. with Alexander Zverev), will have a tough rival to try to surpass his best mark in the Chinese capital.

Now the No. 4 seed Andrey Rublev awaits him, who was able to resist a great Pablo Carreño Busta. The Asturian resorted to the Protected Ranking to play the tournament, but ended up losing 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 49 minutes.

Rublev added his ninth victory in his last ten meetings against Spanish opponents (l. with Alcaraz in the group stage of the Nitto ATP Finals) and extended his record to 5-0 in the first round in Beijing, where his best result is the quarterfinals that he signed in 2017.

For his part, Roberto Bautista Agut had started this Friday’s day with a solid victory against Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 23 minutes.

The man from Castellón, who arrived on the Asian tour with the confidence of having achieved two important victories for his country in the Group Stage of the Davis Cup Finals, will try to continue continuing his great moment of form against Jiri Lehecka.

The Czech had defeated another Spaniard in the first round, Pedro Martínez 7-6(4), 6-2.

Did you know that…?

The last Spanish player to win the title at the China Open was Rafael Nadal in 2017. The Manacor native also won in 2005. In addition to him, Tommy Robredo (2007) and David Ferrer (2010) reached the final.