CHENGDU, September 19, 2023 (Press Release)
Australian Aleksandar Vukic will be the only seeded singles player in action as the main draw of the Chengdu Open 2023 gets underway on Wednesday at the Sichuan International Tennis Centre.
The 27-year-old number eight seed is in fine form, reaching his maiden ATP Tour final at Atlanta in July before storming into the third round of the Toronto Masters as a lucky loser just last month, propelling him to a career high of No. 48.
Vukic will face Japanese World No. 95 Taro Daniel for the first time on tour in tomorrow’s first Centre Court match slated to commence at 1pm. The 30-year-old Daniel’s best result this year came at Acapulco in February, when he recorded his biggest career win against then World No. 4 Casper Ruud to make the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 event.
The next Centre Court match will feature another first-time tour-level contest between World No. 55 Roman Safiullin and 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals champion Brandon Nakashima, who is currently ranked at No. 81.
The 26-year-old Safiullin reached a career high of No.43 in July after making the Wimbledon quarterfinals, while his 22-year-old American opponent’s best result this season came at Lyon, where he defeated then World No. 17 Tommy Paul to make the last four.
In tomorrow’s final Centre Court duel, 23-year-old Chinese wild card Mu Tao will make his ATP Tour level debut against France’s Corentin Moutet. The 24-year-old Moutet ended 2022 at a career high of No. 51 after winning his sixth career Challenger title at Szczecin and reaching the third round of the Paris Masters, but the former Top-10 junior has failed to replicate his form this season and dropped to No. 122 in the rankings.
Court 1 and Court 2 will feature two qualifying finals tomorrow morning from 11am onwards, followed by one first round doubles match to be played not before 3pm.
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In Tuesday’s qualifying round matches, all seeded players successfully made it past their first hurdle. Looking ahead to tomorrow’s action, Pavel Kotov, the top seed in the qualifying round, who achieved a career-best ranking of No. 85 in July following his runs to the Braunschweig Challenger final and the second round of the ATP 250 in Bastad, will go head-to-head with Australia’s Omar Jasika in the first Court 2 match of the day.
Meanwhile, the second seed in qualifying, Australia’s Tu Li, will take on Alibek Kachmazov in Court 1’s opening match. In the other two qualifying round final matches to be played, Evgeny Donskoy will take on Australia’s Philip Sekulic and Japan’s Rio Noguchi will square off against Zimbabwe’s top tennis star Benjamin Lock.
In tomorrow’s doubles main draw action, Chinese wildcards Li Wenfu and Yang Mingfuan will meet the fourth seeded Great Britain-American pair of Julian Cash and Robert Galloway on Court 1. The other doubles match features Colombian-Peruvian duo, Daniel Elahi Galan and Juan Pablo Varillas, taking on the singles specialists tandem of Alexander Bublik and Miomir Kecmanovic.
Tickets for main draw matches start from RMB50 for first round matches and may be purchased at here.
