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Sixth seed Mackenzie McDonald of the United States beat Shang Juncheng of China 6-4 6-7(3) 6-3 in the first round of the Zhuhai Championships on Thursday, September 21. The hard-fought battle lasted just over two-and-a-half hours.
McDonald will face Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium in the second round on Friday. The 28-year-old American will be the favorite to win that match, but Coppejans is capable of causing an upset.
On that note, here's a look at two things that stood out in the match:
#1 McDonald fared well with his backhand in the first set
Shang’s crosscourt backhand was directed at McDonald’s backhand, with the former being a southpaw. Hence, it was important for the American to hold his own with his backhand.
McDonald managed to do it quite well in the first set and did not allow Shang to gain the upper hand with his forehand. The American also used his backhand slice and drop shots sporadically to take the pace off the ball and make things slightly more difficult for his opponent. McDonald broke Shang in the first game of the match, and that was enough to win the first set.
#2 Shang started hitting his down-the-line backhand well, but McDonald defended admirably
From the second set onwards, Shang started hitting his down-the-line backhand to the open court more often after having pushed McDonald to the latter’s backhand corner. He won quite a few points using this tactic.
Still, McDonald defended well along the width of the baseline and the Chinese found it difficult to hit through him.
Shang broke McDonald twice in the second set, but the American fought back to level the score at 5-5. The set eventually went into a tie-break, which Shang managed to win comfortably. However, the American held firm in the third set before getting the decisive break in the eighth game. He proceeded to serve out the match comfortably to secure the win.
McDonald won an impressive 81% of the points on his first serve compared to 77% for Shang. The margin was much closer on their second serves, with the American winning 48% compared to 47% for the Chinese.
In the end, McDonald's experience enabled him to come out on top in an evenly balanced encounter. He will now fancy his chances of going deep in the tournament.
