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Medvedev and Sinner given extra time to rest
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Favourites Zverev and Hurkacz facing high variance matches
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Eubanks the pick on day three
Second round gets underway in Shanghai
Friday in Shanghai sees second round action from the bottom half of the draw with the exception of Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner's matches, following their final in Beijing. So, there are 14 matches today and 18 tomorrow as the event continues.
Action gets underway at 530 in the morning UK time, and there's plenty to discuss. As would be expected, a number of high ranked players and big potential young players are heavy favourites as they start their events against theoretical mismatches, and these include Alex De Minaur, Lorenzo Musetti and Sebastian Korda. Sinner and Medvedev from this half of the draw are also justified strong favourites over Marcos Giron and Christian Garin, respectively.
Zverev facing tricky clash with Safiullin
Alexander Zverev is one top ten player who could well be tested as he takes on the improving Roman Safiullin, who disposed of Andy Murray with ease in round one. The duo met in the Chengdu final several weeks ago, with Zverev priced up at 1.374/11 and winning 6-7 7-6 6-3, and a similarly close match could well be on the cards. The market has drifted Zverev slightly following that match, with Zverev the 1.4840/85 favourite currently, and it looks about right to me.
Tiebreak potential in Hurkacz and Kokkinakis match
Another close match could be Hubert Hurkacz who faces Thanasi Kokkinakis, with both of their meetings this year (both on hard court) won by Hurkacz but with five of the six sets decided via tiebreaks. In quick conditions, more of the same could be on the cards.
For those matches, Hurkacz was priced up at around the 1.402/5 mark but is bigger today at 1.618/13, which makes sense given the potentially high-variance nature of the match in quick conditions.
Conditions likely to be in Eubanks' favour
Finally, Chris Eubanksif fit looks a decent price at 2.186/5 against Yannick Hanfmann whose win over James Duckworth on Wednesday was his first on hard court this year on the main tour. We have to go back to January 2022 to find Hanfmann's last main tour win on the surface.
Conditions should benefit Eubanks' serve - he had an excellent grass season in quick conditions - while not assisting Hanfmann who tends to do his best work on clay. Eubanks took September off following illness at the US Open so hopefully will be fresh and ready to get the job done on Friday.