Barry Hawkins vs Yuelong Zhou Prediction: Can Yuelong keep his record intact here?

Barry Hawkins and Yuelong Zhou will battle it out in day one act𒁏ion of the Shanghai Masters tournament. Both players are coming off a defeat into this game and will look to secure a crucial win. How will this gam♈e play out?

Barry Hawkins is off a run of poor matches and will be confident he can do better. Barry Hawkins lost to Neil Robertson, Ali Carter, and Ryan Day in his last matches. However, his prior encounters to those defeats saw Barry Hawkins secure wins over Jenson Kendrick, Robert Williams, and Stuart Maguire in matches that ended 2-5, 2-5, and 5-1, respectively.

Yuelong Zhou will look to extend his record against Barry Hawkins and he will hope he has luck. Yuelong Zhou has struggled in his recent games, failing to win any of his last four. In that run, Yuelong Zhou lost to Jak Jones, Allen Burden, and Zhengyi Fan, while he drew 2-2 with Nutcharut Wongharuthai. However, Yuelong Zhou's record reads just one win in his last eight games, coming against James Cahill. 

The two players might be struggling, but Barry Hawkins is just at the top level, and while taking a struggling opponent like this, I expect him to show character. However, I will not write Yuelong ♚Zhou here, looking at how he performed well against Hawkins. But I do not see the odds in his favor here but this should be a tight game.