The ATP 500 China Open main draw action has started on Thursday with a strong start from the whole tournament's favorite Jannik Sinner and one significant upset over the first five matches played. Friday's schedule contains a rich line-up of matches to conclude the first round including some top names to follow Sinner's path and start the campaign in Beijing on a positive note.
Sinner's interesting rematch
The Italian made the job done as expected against the former Grand Slam champion who celebrates his 37th birthday in three days. Cilic has won just two matches on hard courts this season, which made any consideration of him being a threat for Sinner in the opening match a doubtful one. The on-court events reflected that, as the world number two was on the front foot in both sets, comfortably running away with the score. Sinner faced just one breakpoint in the whole match, playing 8 points on serve under pressure and winning 7 of those.
Next match-up for Sinner looks like a much more intriguing one. Terence Atmane performed one of the most sensational runs of the season in Cincinnati where he made it into the semifinals as a qualifier, defeating names like Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune on the road. The Frenchman sets up the revenge for the semifinals of that tournament, where Sinner stopped his run winning by 7-6(4) 6-2. Atmane regrouped after an early exit in the first round of ATP 250 in Chengdu, being on a streak of three straight set wins right now. The world number 68 scraped through the qualifiers without losing a set and won against the wild card Zhizhen Zhang by 6-4 6-2.
Muller upsets Khachanov
The biggest highlight of day one was surely an upset put on the 5th seed Karen Khachanov by Alexandre Muller. The world number 38 came back from a set down to perform a surprising win over the world number 10 rated with pre-match odds of 4.29. Muller was a dominant force in the second set, producing 6 breakpoints in the opening games of the set. That got rewarded in a tiebreak, where he managed to come back from being very close to a straight-sets defeat, winning from 2-4 at one point. The decisive set started with two breaks in the opening games. Muller defended a breakpoint in the 8th game to find the break on his own in the following one and won the whole match by 4-6 7-6(5) 6-4. That was a really good match with a positive record of winners to unforced errors achieved by both players - Muller's 28-21 and Khachanov's 23-19. For Khachanov, it's a second consecutive upset faced as a strong pre-match favorite after his second round exit against Kamil Majchrzak, however his game was not looking poor in either of those - Muller was just another opponent to put a really great performance against the Russian.
The Frenchman faces Fabian Marozsan in the second round. The Hungarian defeated Benjamin Bonzi by 7-6(1) 6-3. Another straight set win of the day was performed by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina who easily passed Camilo Ugo Carabelli, winning by 6-1 6-3 which was the 4th consecutive defeat for the Argentinian.
Friday's matches preview
The line-up of matches scheduled for Friday promises an eventful day. Second seed Alexander Zverev starts against Lorenzo Sonego who is on a negative record in his hard courts campaign in 2025 (12-14), however has the abilities for some good serving on a good day. Third seed Alex De Minaur will try to avoid the upset against the local crowd's favorite Bu Yunchaokete, being a strong pre-match favorite.
4th seed Lorenzo Musetti will try to bounce back after the painful upset faced in the final of ATP 250 in Chengdu earlier in the week. The Italian faces the French ace-bomber Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. Daniil Medvedev continues his attempts to recover from his recent slump in form. Medvedev is a favorite over Cameron Norrie, however the Russian was often prone to fail against lower-rated opponents in recent months. In this season, he won just 6 out of 10 matches as a banker favorite (with self odds lower than 1.20) and just 16 out of 26 matches when his pre-match odds were set between 1.20 and 1.50.
Before you go, you can catch up the full main draw analysis posted in the pre-tournament preview article.