France’s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard defeated China’s Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 7-6(3) in the men’s singles first round at the ATP Dubai Championships on Monday.
Mpetshi Perricard gained an early advantage by breaking Zhang’s serve in the fourth game of the first set, quickly establishing a 4-1 lead. Despite Zhang’s efforts to recover, the Frenchman maintained his momentum to secure the first set.
In the second set, Zhang showed resilience, holding his serve through the first six games without any breaks. He had an opportunity to break Mpetshi Perricard in the final service game but couldn’t capitalize. The set progressed to a tiebreaker, where Mpetshi Perricard surged ahead 4-0 before closing out the match with a 7-3 tiebreak victory.
With this win, Mpetshi Perricard advances to the second round, where he will face either top seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia or Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff.
Zhang Zhizhen, currently ranked 49th in the world and the highest-ranked Asian men’s singles player, continues to face challenges this season, having been eliminated in the first round of five tournaments so far.
