On September 9, the 21 Zhuhai Tennis Championship began the second matchday of the main event. The opening match in centre court was between veteran Karatsev and Italian rising star Anardi. Karatsev showed great firepower in the first set, conceding just three points on his serve, while Anardi maneuvered with his nimble and sharp attack. After winning the first set by tie-breaking, Anardi broke serve first in the second set to take the initiative in the game. However, Karatsev did not intend to disarm at this point, and he fought after and tenaciously equalized the score. In the crucial tiebreaker, Karatsev was in full control and sealed the victory 2023-6. The whole game lasted more than 2 hours, allowing the audience to witness a hearty and exciting battle.
In the second match of center court, Argentina's Schwarzman faced qualifier Usain Bolt. In the end, the former No.8 was unable to continue when trailing 3-6, 2-4, and chose to retire, and Bolt advanced to the next round.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Murray, British star Murray and Chinese wildcard player Mok Yecong, took to the court in the evening. To the surprise of the home fans, the homegrown Mo Yecong played resolutely and decisively from the beginning, adding a lot of suspense to the game. Unfortunately, Mo Yecong made a series of mistakes in the first set of unavoidable serves, and then Murray ran to win the game 7-5. Mo Yecong's accuracy dropped in the second set, and Murray's more experienced experience came into play, occasionally scoring the winning point in the defense or forcing Mo Yecong to make a mistake to win the next set 6-3 and advance to the next round without risk. In the second round, Murray's opponent will be Karatsev.
For Mo Yecong, who performed remarkably, Murray spoke highly of him: "I think he played quite well. It caused me a lot of pressure. Murray was also impressed by the overwhelming support from the crowd for both sides: "It's not easy to come and watch the game during the day on weekdays, but today there are a lot of spectators, they are very friendly, the atmosphere is good, I think there should be more spectators on the weekend. ”
Mo Yecong said after the game that he scored 8 points for his performance: "There are indeed some regrets, because I feel that I played a chance, but I didn't take it, so I will go back and summarize and cheer up!" I hope to improve my ranking as soon as possible, come to this arena, continue to play with them, and strive to win next time I have this opportunity. ”
In the finale, Chinese rising star Shang Cheng challenged Chinese-American player MacDonald on Center Court. The starter had a poor hand and was broken on his first serve, and although his form improved, he was unable to recover the break disadvantage and won the first set 4-6. Heading into the second set, Shang Juncheng played aggressively to the crowd of his home audience, and despite wasting his serve to win the set, he pulled back a set with a strong play in the tie-break seven. There was a frightening moment in the third set of the tiebreaker, when Shang Juncheng fell while saving the ball, and although he did not seem to be in trouble for the time being after returning to the court, it also set the stage for another leg injury in the eighth game. Obviously limited in this set, he lost three consecutive sets after 3-3, and unfortunately lost 4-6/7-6 (3)/3-6.
Single and doubles main draw signs
