Friday was a day full of action in ATP 500 China Open held in Beijing. After 5 opening matches played on Thursday (review article), the most of first round encounters got scheduled for today and delivered some interesting settlements. Andrey Rublev and Alexander Bublik got surprisingly eliminated in second day of the tournament. The other favorites advanced into round of 16 after quite good performance displayed in their matches. Here is the review from Friday ties and and preview of second round scheduled for the rest of weekend.
Rublev's surprising give over
Andrey Rublev was a strong favorite before the match against Flavio Cobolli. The Italian is clearly a clay courts specialist (14-5 record on the main tour in 2025) in comparison to his struggles on hard courts (just 7 wins in 19 matches played this season before Rublev's match). The world number 14 approached Beijing after a surprising early exit in Hangzhou where he got eliminated in the first round by the eventual runner-up Valentin Royer despite being the top seed. Rublev seemed like having full control of the match against Cobolli in the first set, leading by 5-2, however the Italian cleared the one break deficit and won the tiebreak by 7-3. Both were serving well in the first set with 83% first serve won by Rublev and 80% by Cobolli. The Russian started the second set on the front foot again, leading by 2-0 and even having two breakpoint chances to double his lead. That set turned over as well, as Cobolli broke back and survived the pressure put by his favored opponent in his own service games. The world number 25 added another break in the 8th game and served for the win later on, scraping quite a sensational victory by 7-6(3) 6-3 knowing the pre-match predictions and course of events during both sets. Rublev's level dropped in the second set with just 58% of first serve points won and general vulnerability in clutch points.
Bublik's end of the run
Alexander Bublik has not followed the brilliant performance shown in last week's dominant run in Hangzhou which ended with his 4th title won this year. The Kazakh won the whole ATP 250 tournament without losing a serve on the road, facing just 3 breakpoints and scoring an average of 17.5 aces per match and 89% first serve points won. His form displayed in the match against Adrian Mannarino was nowhere near that, though. Bublik was vulnerable on his serve from the start, cracking under pressure from the French veteran who recently made it into the round of 16 of US Open. Bublik lost his serve early in the third game and was not able to put any pressure on Mannarino who lost just two service points in that set including three consecutive holds to zero. The world number 16 managed to put some fight in the 5th game of the second set but could not convert any of three breakpoints produced and then got easily broken to zero in two consecutive games which sealed the victory for Mannarino by 6-3 6-2. It was a comprehensive performance from the Frenchman who won his third match in a row in Beijing after two straight sets wins in qualifiers. He scored 8 aces and 100% of first serve points in the first set. This kind of form was expected more from his opponent, however Mannarino occurred to be a much more competent opponent than all Bublik's rivals from Hangzhou where he did not play against any player ranked higher than 88th on the ATP list.
Musetti wins serving battle
Lorenzo Musetti prevailed in the encounter against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, winning by 7-6(3) 6-7(4) 6-4. As expected, it was quite a serving fest, however the first set was not full of rock-solid serving from both. Sonego was the first one to break but failed to serve for the set in the 10th game, although getting his advantage back in the tiebreak. The second set brought no breaks, while Mpetshi Perricard came back from a minibreak down in another tiebreak, winning 4 points from 3-4 down with a serious threat of a straight sets defeat. The third set was settled with Sonego's break gained in the third game. That was quite a high quality match, as the serving numbers raised up for both players since the shaky first set. Both scored more than 80% of first serve in either the second and third sets. Mpetshi Perricard recorded another match with double digits of aces (14) and another time it did not translate into a significant final result. The Frenchman recorded his 21st loss in 34 matches played in 2025 despite an average of 13 aces per match on all surfaces. That win proves the rising trend for Sonego on hard courts, even despite the huge disappointment lived by the Italian in the final of ATP 250 in Chengdu where he failed to clinch the trophy despite having two match points against the qualifier Alejandro Tabilo.
Home favorites' disappointment
There are no Chinese players left in the draw after two defeats suffered by home representatives on Friday. Alex De Minaur denied any chance for an upset for the world number 89 - Bu Yunchaokete. The Aussie was the first player to defend a breakpoint in the 4th game (the only one faced by him that day), but controlled the course of the match since then, especially in the second set winning by 6-4 6-0. The other local wild card was much closer to grabbing the victory in the first round. Juncheng Shang won the opening set against the qualifier Arthur Cazaux by 6-0 and was leading 3-1 in the second set, seemingly being on the way for a comfortable win. The Frenchman came back level on serve forcing the tiebreak though, moving into the third set where he gained the one and only break in the 11th game. The world number 80 performed a significant comeback, winning by 0-6 7-6(5) 7-5 in the longest match of the day.
Medvedev's relief victory, seeds move through
The former world number one played one of his best matches in recent weeks, defeating Cameron Norrie by 6-3 6-4. Despite losing two service games in the early stages of both sets, that was a version of Medvedev which is usually expected on hard courts. The 2021 US Open champion scored 9 aces, 81.5% first serve points and despite conceding two breaks he faced just 5 pressure points throughout the whole match. Norrie needed to clear the constant pressure from the Russian though, winning just 10 out of 23 pressure points which got reflected in the final score. It's a kind of relief win for Medvedev who was still a pre-match favorite over Norrie, but won just 56% of matches while being rated with odds lower than 1.50 on hard courts this season.
Other seeds scored straight sets victories on Friday. Alexander Zverev successfully fulfilled his role as the favorite over Lorenzo Sonego, scoring a routine victory by 6-4 6-3. The second seed was never in danger, facing just 2 pressure points in the first set which got settled with one break gained by the German in the 10th game. Zverev ran away with the score in the second set, breaking Sonego twice and holding his serve without losing a point up to leading 5-1 when he lost his one and only service game that day. He did not let off that win though, moving through after 1.5 hours of comfortable play.
7th seed Jakub Mensik defeated Miomir Kecmanovic in two competitive sets. The Czech survived the turbulent opening set which lasted more than an hour with a few momentum switches and one crazy game which ended up after 10 deuces with Mensik's hold. The world number 19 came back from 0-2 down to fail serving for the set in the 9th game, but ultimately won this set by 7-5. Mensik occurred to be clutch in the decisive games of the second set as well, regaining the lost advantage of an early break and won by 7-5 6-4 with 10 aces and 28 winners scored in comparison to just 16 unforced errors.
Second round preview
The round of 16 matches will be played over the weekend. Saturday will be featured by the top seed Jannik Sinner and his interesting match-up against Terence Atmane - the rematch for the semifinal played between both in Cincinnati last month where the world number two won in straight sets. The French contingent will try to make some upsets over the top seeds. Alex De Minaur plays against the lucky loser from qualifiers - Arthur Rinderknech on Saturday. On the same day, Jakub Mensik meets the qualifier Arthur Cazaux.
On Sunday, Alexander Zverev plays against Corentin Moutet, while Lorenzo Musetti sets up an interesting match-up against well-performing Adrian Mannarino. Another match to watch is Daniil Medvedev against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The Russian will try to follow his good performance from the first round against the Spaniard who is a dangerous opponent playing a very good season so far - being a runner-up already three times this year on hard courts.
Here is the statistical breakdown of the most interesting match-ups for the round of 16:
