Fognini Advances In Shenzhen

Fabio Fognini recorded his 20th match win of the season on Monday when the seventh seed defeated Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-1 in 78 minutes on his debut at the Shenzhen Open. He’ll next face qualifier Mischa Zverev who struck eight aces and won 96 per cent of his first service points to oust wild card Zhe Li. Zverev leads Fognini 2-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

Andrew Whittington saved four match points in the second set tie-break to force a third set and beat fellow qualifier Luca Vanni 2-6, 7-6(10), 6-2 in two hours and 20 minutes. The 23-year-old Australian, making his ATP World Tour main draw debut, will next face third seed Richard Gasquet in the second round.

In doubles, Jonathan Erlich and Santiago Gonzalez saved one match point at 8/9 in the Match Tie-break to knock out Lukas Rosol and Jiri Vesely 6-7(5), 6-2, 11-9 in one hour and 46 minutes.

DAY 2 PREVIEW: The No. 1 Chinese player in the Emirates ATP Rankings comes home on Tuesday for his first ATP World Tour match of 2016. Ze Zhang is 4-0 on tour this season, with all four wins coming in Davis Cup Group I. The 26 year old from Nanjing is in a unique position against Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, whom he defeated at a Challenger event in Chengdu last month. For just the second time in 20 ATP and Grand Slam main draw matches, Zhang is ranked higher than his opponent. Tipsarevic, a former World No. 8, is 45 spots below Zhang at No. 224 after missing seven of the past 12 months with foot and knee injuries.

Also in first-round action on Centre Court is No. 6 seed Benoit Paire. The Frenchman enjoyed a breakout season in 2015, winning five titles in eight finals across the ATP World Tour, ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Futures Circuit. Playing exclusively at tour-level events in 2016, Paire has yet to reach a final and fallen from a career-high No. 18 on 11 January to No. 38 this week. Paire has suffered five losses this season to players ranked outside of the Top 100. His opponent on Tuesday is 103rd-ranked Nikoloz Basilashvili.

Play begins on Centre Court with 2015 Shenzhen Open runner-up Guillermo Garcia-Lopez taking on American qualifier Ryan Harrison. Garcia-Lopez has not reached a singles final since falling to Tomas Berdych here last year, but he did play in back-to-back doubles finals earlier this season. He won the Winston-Salem Open title with Henri Kontinen and fell in the US Open final with fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta.

Among the players competing on the outer courts are Pablo Andujar of Spain and 19 year old Akira Santillan of Japan. Andujar is appearing at his first ATP event since undergoing right elbow surgery on 17 March, while Santillan will be playing the second tour-level match of his career. The wild card fell to Jan-Lennard Struff at Kitzbuhel on 19 July. In doubles, No. 1 seeds Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi continue their quest for qualification at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals against Fognini and Robert Lindstedt.