The Grand Slam season on the 2024 tennis calendar has come to a close and Davis Cup group-stage action is also in the rearview mirror, so it’s time for the fall swing to begin on the ATP Tour. It all gets started this week in Asia, where ATP 250 tournaments are taking place in Chengdu and Hangzhou. Among the players taking the court are Lorenzo Musetti, Alexander Bublik, Holger Rune, Karen Khachanov, Kei Nishikori, and Marin Cilic.
Here are my previews and picks for the two events.
Chengdu Open
Where: Chengdu, China
Surface: Hard
Points: 250
Prize money: $1,171,655
Top seed: Lorenzo Musetti
2023 champion: Alexander Zverev (not playing)
Draw analysis: Musetti heads into the fall swing on the heels of an awesome summer that included a semifinal run at Wimbledon and a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. With struggling seeded players Nicolas Jarry and Adrian Mannarino in the Italian’s half of the Chengdu draw, he has to like his chances this week.
However, the field is not without some other legitimate title threats. Bublik can be incredibly dangerous on any given day and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard can be the same. The winning of an intriguing first-round showdown between Nishikori and Jerry Shang could also do some damage.
Hot: Lorenzo Musetti, Lorenzo Sonego, Jerry Shang
Cold: Nicolas Jarry, Adrian Mannarino, Borna Coric
Quarterfinal predictions: Lorenzo Musetti over Chun-Hsin Tseng, Lorenzo Sonego over Lukas Klein, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard over Aleksandar Vukic, and Jerry Shang over Alexandre Muller
Semifinals: Musetti over Sonego and Shang over Mpetshi Perricard
Final: Shang over Musetti
Hangzhou Open
Where: Hangzhou, China
Surface: Hard
Points: 250
Prize money: $1,000,630
Top seed: Holger Rune
Defending champion: Non (inaugural event)
Draw analysis: The Zhuhai tournament has relocated to Hangzhou, where Rune is the top seed and eager to turn his year around right before the finish line. He won’t have an easy time of it, as Atlanta champion Yoshihito Nishioka is also in the top quarter of the bracket. Also in the top half is a red-hot Brandon Nakashima, who just destroyed Rune en route to round four of the U.S. Open. Moreover, Nakashima has already been in China for a week—having led the United States to a sweep of the Zhuhai round-robin group to earn a place in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.
China’s best hope is Zhizhen Zhang (Yibing Wu is also in the field, but he has been injured or much of the 2024 campaign). Zhang could meet Aslan Karatsev or an in-form Mattia Bellucci in the second round before possibly running into Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the quarters. Khachanov, the second seed, is a potential semifinal foe for either Zhang or Etcheverry.
Hot: Brandon Nakashima, Mattia Bellucci, Rinky Hijikata
Cold: Holger Rune, Karen Khachanov, Marin Cilic, Mikhail Kukushkin, Yibing Wu, Aslan Karatsev
Quarterfinal predictions: Yoshihito Nishioka over Holger Rune, Brandon Nakashima over Rinky Hijikata, Tomas Martin Etcheverry over Mattia Bellucci, and Karen Khachanov over Luciano Darderi
Semifinals: Nakashima over Nishioka and Etcheverry over Khachanov
Final: Nakashima over Etcheverry
