China Open is the biggest attraction in terms of tennis of this segment. While the ATP circuit has an Atp 500 event in play, on the other side the women's circuit bumps into its last Premier Mandatory event of the season.
Thus, Beijing is the hot spot of the week even though there is another similar event held in Tokyo, Japan at the same time. Men's draw delivered some high-quality matches and for the first time in w while all the top-seeds survived the initial challenge. Whether we talk about Rafael Nadal, Grigor Dimitrov. Juan Martin del Potro, Nick Kyrgios or John Isner, today was not the time or the place to witness some upsets being delivered.
A poor day for the underdogs that keeps the draw's market value up.
Grigor Dimitrov and Juan Martin del Potro will be making the headlines of the second round
2017 Cincinnati winner and 2017 Australian Open semifinalist, Grigor Dimitrov (8 ATP) is trying to regain the summer form that earned him his first Masters 1000 title. After a disappointing run at the US Open, he had a good start in Beijing getting past an in-form Damir Dzumhur in three sets.
The player from Bosnia ranked 36th in the world pushed Dimitrov into a third set. It was an unexpected turn given the fact that the Bulgarian had won the opening set by 6-1. Eventually, the third seed in Beijing topped his opponent to earn his first win on Asian soil in 2017.
He awaits Juan Martin del Potro in the next round.
The 28-year-old Argentian got past Pablo Cuevas (32 ATP) in straight sets. Ranked 24th in the world, del Potro took was granted a last-minute wild-card entry in Beijing. Thus, he featured in his first official match since losing to Rafael Nadal in the semis at the US Open. He and Nadal are on a possible collision for the semis.
Nick Kyrgios, John Isner, and Tomas Berdych are through the opening round
Seeded eighth, Nick Kyrgios (19 ATP) stormed past Nikoloz Basilashvili (60 ATP) by 6-1 6-2 in a bit under an hour of play. The 22-year-old Aussie will face Mischa Zverev for a place in the quarterfinals.
In another interesting matchup, Andrey Rublev recovered from one set deficit to clinch a compelling win over Jack Sock.
After having a breakthrough in New York where the 19-year-old Russian made it into the quarterfinals before losing to Rafael Nadal, he seems ready to climb up the ladder. Ranked 39th in the world he could use an apparently easier half of the draw to add up value to his current slot. He will take Tomas Berdych for a place in the third round.
Tomas Berdych survived the scare in the inaugural round. Winning the first set was not enough as he went on losing the second act by 6-0. His opponent, Jared Donaldson (56 ATP) wasn't able to keep up the momentum in the decisive set. Seeded seventh, Berdych secured a spot in the next round.
