World number 5 Tomas Berdych is looking to get his quest to be included in the field for London back on track with a winning display in Shenzhen, China.
The former wimbledon finalist currently enjoys a dominating lead over the ninth ranked player Richard Gasquet, but after a poor showing in St Petersburg last week, he needs to step up. He had lost to Simone Bolelli. Berdych opens against Austin Krajicek, who came from a set down to defeat James Duckworth , 5-7, 7-6, 6-1.
Last year’s inaugural event was won by Andy Murray, but the British no. 1 is not in attendance this year. Instead, Berdych’s main challengers for the title include last year’s finalist Tommy Robredo and 2014 US Open titlist Marin Cilic.
Berdych’s nemesis from St Petersburg, Bolelli, opens against Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer. The most intriguing round one fixture sees an all French class between fifth seed Adrian Mannarino and young upstart Lucas Pouille. Mannarino won their earlier meeting this year a close three set encounter. However, that fixture came in the second event of the season for both players, in Auckland, more than six months ago. Pouille has moved his ranking up more than fifty places since that time, and has far more Tour experience. Mannarino has poor form since the Copa Claro Open in Bogota, though he did take Andy Murray to five sets in the US Open second round. Despite this, there is a good chance of an upset.
Other first round highlights include Denis Istomin against Lukas Rosol, and Aljaz Bedene versus Mikhail Youzhny.
