Dolgopolov Cruises, Sousa Upset In Shenzhen

Fifth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov continued his return to form Tuesday, dropping just six points on serve en route to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over qualifier Lloyd Harris at the Shenzhen Open.

Dolgopolov, who is nearing the Top 50 of the Emirates ATP Rankings once again after falling to No. 89 in May — his lowest ranking since 2010 — did not face a break point in dispatching his South African opponent in 63 minutes.

The Ukrainian dropped just one point in his first three service games to sprint to a 4-1 lead and would never look back. Dolgopolov hit 11 aces to help secure the victory and a matchup with compatriot Sergiy Stakhovsky, who defeated Nicolas Kicker in straight sets.

Henri Laaksonen earned the upset of the day, taking just 68 minutes to upend seventh-seeded Joao Sousa, 6-3, 6-0. It was the second-best win of the Swiss’ career by ranking, after beating World No. 29 Pablo Cuevas in Bastad earlier this year.

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Laaksonen’s toughest moment came when facing break point at 3-3 in the opening set. After nullifying the World No. 107’s opportunity, he held and would not lose another game.

Zhizhen Zhang won his second ATP World Tour match, and his second at the Shenzhen Open in three years, as the 20-year-old qualifier beat Rogerio Dutra Silva, 6-4, 6-1.

Eighth-seeded Donald Young eliminated 17-year-old wild card Nicola Kuhn, who was making his ATP World Tour debut and attempting to become the first player born in the 21st century to win a tour-level match, 7-5, 7-6(4).

Second-seeded David Goffin will begin his campaign Wednesday, while #NextGenATP World No. 4 Alexander Zverev will play his first-round doubles match with Marcelo Melo against Hans Podlipnik-Castillo and Andrei Vasilevski.

Mirnyi’s Milestone Doubles Win

Max Mirnyi became only the fifth player in the Open Era (since April 1968) to record 750 doubles match wins on Tuesday afternoon when he partnered Philipp Oswald to a 7-6(5), 6-1 victory over Chinese wild card Mao-Xin Gong and Ze Zhang. Todd Woodbridge (782), Bob Bryan (1,038), Mike Bryan (1,052) and Daniel Nestor (1,054) stand ahead of the Belarusian in the Open Era doubles match wins list.