MATCH POINTS
No.5 seed and US Open champion Bianca Andreescu enters Beijing on a 14-match winning streak, and has won 24 of her past 25 matches dating back to the Acapulco semifinals in March – with the only loss coming via retirement. Only three players have defeated the Canadian in completed matches this year: Julia Goerges in the Auckland final, Anastasija Sevastova in the second round of the Australian Open and Sofia Kenin in Acapulco. Today, Aliaksandra Sasnovich bids to become the fourth, in what would be the Belarusian’s sixth career Top 10 win.
Wang Yafan will bid to repeat her 6-2, 6-4 upset of No.3 seed Elina Svitolina in the second round of Miami this year – the Chinese No.4’s first Top 10 win of her career. A win would also put Wang into the third round of Beijing for the first time.
No.16 seed and defending champion Caroline Wozniacki has won back-to-back titles at six tournaments in her career, most recently at Tokyo 2017. The Dane has a 1-0 record against qualifier Lauren Davis, having won 7-5, 6-1 in the 2017 Doha quarterfinals en route to the final, where she fell to Karolina Pliskova. Two-time winner Wozniacki is the only former Beijing champion remaining in the draw after Garbiñe Muguruza, Caroline Garcia and Svetlana Kuznetsova all fell in the first round.
Wildcard Jelena Ostapenko and Katerina Siniakova will resume a junior rivalry for the first time at pro level today. The pair split two meetings in Tennis Europe U16 events before Ostapenko won two of their three ITF junior clashes – although Siniakova took their most recent tilt 6-2, 6-2 in the 2013 Australian Open girls’ quarterfinals en route to her only Grand Slam junior singles final.
US Open quarterfinalist Elise Mertens defeated Zhengzhou runner-up Petra Martic 7-6(5), 7-5 in their only previous meeting, in the fourth round of the 2018 Australian Open en route to the Belgian’s maiden Grand Slam semifinal.
Having captured the first Top 10 win of her career over Karolina Pliskova last week in Wuhan, Dayana Yastremska will now bid for the second against No.8 seed Kiki Bertens.
An all-Russian derby finds Veronika Kudermetova taking on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in a rematch of their Shenzhen second-round clash in the first week of the season, won by Kudermetova 6-2, 1-6, 6-2. Overall, Pavlyuchenkova has a 35-28 record against fellow Russians in WTA main draws, while Kudermetova is 3-2 against her compatriots.
Seoul champion Karolina Muchova will bid to extend her five-match winning streak with what would be a fifth career Top 20 win over No.11 seed Madison Keys.
No.6 seed Simona Halep was stretched all the way by Ekaterina Alexandrova in their sole prior encounter, winning 3-6, 7-5 6-4 in the second round of Cincinnati last month.
