Neither player is currently inside the top 100 of the ATP rankings, but only one of them, Roberto Carballés Baena, had to come through qualifying.
Zhizhen Zhang
Zhizhen Zhang, who is ranked even lower (No. 319), entered the first round of the tournament via a protected ranking. That stems from a knee injury which kept him out for more than six months, starting in March 2025. At the previous Qatar ExxonMobil Open he lost in the opening round to the lower-ranked Luca Nardi (4:6, 3:6), despite being inside the top 50 at the time.
Roberto Carballés Baena
Roberto Carballés Baena has sort of played this season and sort of not: none of his matches have counted towards the main tour statistics, as they have all been on the Challenger circuit or in qualifying draws, which is typical for a player ranked in the second hundred. He has even dropped in the rankings from No. 128 to No. 175 after five defeats in 11 matches. The Qatar ExxonMobil Open is the first ATP event this season in which he has made it through all the qualifying rounds.
Zhizhen Zhang vs Roberto Carballés Baena Prediction
Despite his lower ranking, Zhang has already faced top-50 opponents three times in 2026 and even won one of those matches, beating Zizou Bergs (6:7, 7:6, 7:5). Their only previous meeting, at the Hangzhou Open 2024, also went Zhang's way (6:3, 6:3), so we are going for a straightforward win for him.
