Articolo precedenteArnaldi vs Tomic in Shanghai: legs against the slice

Shanghai - 08/10

Tie-BreakfastOct 8Oct 8, 20265 min

Good morning and welcome back to TIE-Breakfast: all the tennis you need with breakfast.

Ace Cream's daily newsletter during Masters 1000s and Grand Slams, brought forward to 6:00 every morning for this tournament.

Today is Thursday, October 8, and in Shanghai it is 12:00 and 26 degrees. Ok, here we go.

Today at Breakfast

🇮🇹 Berrettini rallies past Kovacevic with 23 aces and sets up Nakashima
🇩🇰 Rune wins the first set 6-1, then falls to Altmaier
🇮🇹 Bellucci and Cinà go out in the first round
🇬🇷 Tsitsipas opens on Center Court, Darderi waits in round two
🇮🇹 Arnaldi takes on Tomic, the winner gets Fritz
🇵🇱 Hurkacz and Duckworth play for a shot at Djokovic
🇦🇷 Juan Manuel Cerundolo plays for a second round against Alcaraz
🇨🇳 Bu back on court at home in the evening session

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:

🇮🇹 Berrettini Rallies Past Kovacevic With 23 Aces

Matteo Berrettini opened his Shanghai campaign by beating Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-4 with 23 aces and without facing a single break point in the entire match. He lost the first set in the tiebreak after failing to convert four break points, then the match quickly took a different course. In the second round he faces Brandon Nakashima, whom he beat at the 2022 Australian Open.

The break point numbers say a lot: over three sets Kovacevic never managed to put pressure on the Italian's serve, and when the serve holds like that Berrettini can afford to return with more freedom, as he himself explained after the match. He said he was very happy with his reaction after the first set, and in a season of comebacks and layoffs that line seems to weigh as much as the score. Nakashima will be a different kind of test, at a tournament where Berrettini reached the semifinals in 2019.

🇩🇰 Rune Wins the First Set, Then Falls to Altmaier

Holger Rune closed out the first set 6-1 against Daniel Altmaier, then lost 1-6, 7-6, 6-4. The Dane returned to the court last month after rupturing his Achilles tendon in October 2025. In the second round Altmaier faces Ben Shelton, whom he has already beaten this year on the clay of Hamburg.

For a player coming back from such a long injury, matches like this are often decided in the second hour rather than in the first set, and in the second hour Altmaier started getting one more ball back in play. Reading a step backward into it would be unfair, given where Rune is coming from. The impression remains that the level is still there in flashes, and that the consistency to hold it through a whole match is missing. On the same day Wu Yibing beat Michael Zheng 6-3, 7-6.

🇮🇹 Bellucci and Cinà Go Out in the First Round

Mattia Bellucci, who came through qualifying, lost 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 to Chinese wild card Zhou Yi. Federico Cinà won the first set against Alex Molcan and then took just three games in the last two: 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Bellucci's loss stings because of how it happened, a deciding tiebreak against a wild card. Cinà goes out after a drop in level that, after the first set, looked more physical than technical.

WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY:

Tsitsipas vs Coppejans - First round on Center Court from 6:00 Italian time. The Greek starts as the favorite against the Belgian qualifier, and the winner faces Luciano Darderi in the second round. Tsitsipas and the Italian have met only once, at Halle 2025, where Tsitsipas won in three sets on grass.
Arnaldi vs Tomic - First round on Court 3, second match after Kotov-Griekspoor at 6:00. Arnaldi starts as the favorite against the Australian, who at 33 is back in a Masters 1000 for the first time since 2019, through qualifying. Tomic lives off a low slice and quick service games; the Italian can lengthen the rallies and make him play on the move. The risk is closing out sets: this year Arnaldi has already wasted six set points against Duckworth in New York and four against Alcaraz in Tokyo. The winner faces Taylor Fritz.
Hurkacz vs Duckworth - First round on Center Court, second match. Hurkacz won here in 2023 but comes in after retiring from his Beijing semifinal against de Minaur. Duckworth is the player who knocked Arnaldi out in the first round of the US Open. At stake is Djokovic, against whom Hurkacz has lost all eight of their meetings.
J.M. Cerundolo vs Mejia - First round on Court 7, third match: on court during the morning. Juan Manuel Cerundolo faces Colombian qualifier Nicolas Mejia for a second-round match against Carlos Alcaraz, the No. 2 seed. Last week in Beijing the Argentine went out in his opener against Bu Yunchaokete.
Van Assche vs Bu - First round on Center Court, not before 12:00 Italian time. Bu Yunchaokete, in the draw on a wild card, plays at home in the evening session. In Beijing he beat Juan Manuel Cerundolo and then won the first set against Djokovic in the second round, before losing 6-4, 6-7(2), 2-6. On the other side is France's Luca Van Assche.