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16th seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland beat Zhizhen Zhang of China 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-6(4) in the fourth round of the Shanghai Masters on Tuesday, October 10. A spirited display from the 26-year-old Chinese in front of his home crowd was not enough to topple the Pole.
Hurkacz will face Hungary's Fabian Marozsan, who beat Casper Ruud in the fourth round, on Thursday. Marozsan is a very exciting talent and Hurkacz might find it difficult to get past him. However, given his superior experience, the Pole will enter the quarterfinal as the favorite.
On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the fourth round match between Zhang and Hurkacz:
#1. Both players rushed the net, with Zhang targeting Hurkacz' backhand:
Neither player managed to hit too many winners with their groundstrokes from the baseline in slower conditions. Instead, both of them rushed the net frequently to finish points with volleys and overhead smashes.
Zhang targeted Hurkacz's backhand with his inside-out forehand repeatedly before rushing forward to finish points from the forecourt. It remained the Chinese's strategy to make Hurkacz stretch to either side before venturing forward to finish the point. Even Hurkacz adopted the same tactic, albeit to a lesser extent.
Both players managed to hold their serve easily in the first set, with Hurkacz prevailing in the tie-break. Zhang then broke the Pole early in the second set to take a 2-0 lead. Hurkacz broke back, but Zhang then got another break of serve to win the set and thus draw level.
#2. Hurkacz's serve won him a lot of free points:
Hurkacz had the superior serve of the two players that helped him scrape through in a tight match. The Pole fired 16 aces in the match, as compared to Zhang's five.
Hurkacz won 85% of the points on his first serve in the match, while Zhang managed only 70%.
The Pole's powerful first serve thus made a huge difference in the match. It also won him a few easy points in the two tie-breaks, which proved to be decisive in determining the fate of the match.
It was a spirited performance from Zhang, who was probably the more aggressive of the two, and tried to finish points quickly. However, he found it difficult to handle Hurkacz's serve and was not able to get mini-breaks often enough in the tie-breaks.
