Great draw for Coleman Wong. Could really reach the SFs here.

 

Gets destroyed by Taro Daniel. What a random run for the Japanese.

 

Lots of players, especially in the bottom half, who are either out-of-form or don’t like these conditions…
Shang is the defending champion and I’d like to see him do well, but it seems unlikely given his lack of matches this year. I could see lots of the seeds struggling. Griekspoor has barely won a match since the grass season. Sonego has been poor all year outside of the AO and Wimbledon. Baez has only won 2 matches on hard courts all season and Darderi's record isn't much better.

I’m thinking that Nakashima might make it out of the bottom half. No real idea about the top half -Musetti made the final here last year, but there's a few dangerous players in his half. Atmane could be a loose cannon, Botic's unpredictable, and Wong's definitely one to watch as well. And then I have a question mark over GMP, who hasn’t looked nearly as good this year as last, but I wonder whether he might start picking up some better results in this part of the season - he's in trouble if he doesn't.

 

Nikoloz through to QFR..looks like he will play Tomic who serve for the match now vs [1] Schoolkate

And it is Tomic. That is a good win for him.

 

McCabe pulls out injured for the second consecutive week after going down a set and a break. Might be time to call it a (good) year, or at least have a decent break. Australian Open wild card is still very likely.

 

Billy Harris wins his qualifying match, Jiang was fuming by the end of it. Will Harris ever break the top 100?

 

Tomic and Billy Harris out of qualifying. What a sad day.

 

Pretty shocking qualifying run from Taro Daniel given his form.

 

Zhou won and Shang is also doing well

 

First win for Shang — defending champion — on the ATP tour after surgery. Takes out Bergs in three.

 

First win for Shang — defending champion — on the ATP tour after surgery. Takes out Bergs in three.

What's happening with Bergs, though? He's been terrible lately, I can't recall any better win he has had for a good while now.

 

Nice to see Tabilo finally find some form after his struggles, has now won at least 4 matches two tournaments in a row.

 

Zhou's journey has ended today against O'Connell in a straight sets loss. Sad ending.

 

Shang loses to Nakashima in straight sets and after his injury layoff, he is now outside the top 200

 

Sonego still can’t string two consecutive wins together outside of a slam this year.
What a very odd year he is having. He’ll be firmly out of the top 100 and back to qualifying and challenger tour after the AO next year.

 

Well he does have PR which he’ll start using after the China swing, it’s never easy to come back from surgery and 6 months off tour. Honestly this was a pretty positive tournament for him, no more struggling with the right foot like in the NA swing and played two decent matches, only the stamina isn’t 100% yet. Nakashima served at 79% today and his style is a tough matchup for Shang, I doubt even last year’s version of Shang would win this match.