Second round action of the remaining 2019 Wuhan Open matches will be played on Tuesday with Wang Qiang, Sloane Stephens, Sofia Kenin and Petra Martic being some of those who will take to court. Get the latest Wang Qiang v Marie Bouzkova & Sloane Stephens v Wang Yafan tips and predictions with their previews along with other matches can be found below.
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Wang Qiang v Marie Bouzkova Preview
The world number 16 Wang Qiang will be facing the 58th-ranked Marie Bouzkova for the first time ever in their careers. Qiang’s rise to the top came last year when she went on a winning streak, also grabbing two titles in the process. She has consolidated her performance this week and even reached a peak ranking of 12th in the world earlier this year before settling in at 16th at the moment
After making it to a career-best quarter-final at the US Open earlier this month, she was pounded away by Serena Williams before losing in the first round at Guangzhou – making it bit of a bitter-sweet issue for her.
21-year-old Bouzkova has had a decent year so far, having qualified for the Toronto Open with two wins and then run up to the semi-finals. That result included some solid wins over Sloane Stephens and Simona Halep too. While she was sent packing in round one at the US Open, Bouzkova came back strongly in Guangzhou and made the quarter-finals there. And with a crushing, straight-set win over Tamara Zidansek in the opening round, she might not be a pushover in this one. In fact if one is better on a surprise win, this could be it.
Tip: Three sets in the match: 7/4 with Unibet
Sloane Stephens v Wang Yafan Preview
This will be the second time that Wang Yafan will be facing Sloane Stephens. In their previous encounter that came on grass, Stephens proved to be too good for Yafan, dropping just two games in the match at Wimbledon but hard court surfaces would be a different ball-game altogether.
For one, Yafan has won her only title, which came earlier this year, on hard court. Even otherwise, it’s her favourite surface, winning 20 of the 32 matches she’s played this year on it – as opposed to 0-5 on clay and 3-3 on grass.
After a poor run of form, Yafan finally managed to reach the semi-final at the Seoul Open last week and overcame Lauren Davis in round one here. It’s been more difficult for Stephens than that for sure.
Stephens did beat Shuai Zhang in the first round here but that win came on the back of losses in seven of her previous nine matches on hard court surfaces. Not the kind of record that would inspire a lot of confidence going into this encounter. Which is why a Yafan win might not be outside the realms of possibility.
Tip: Yafan to win: 5/4 with Unibet
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Sofia Kenin v Elise Mertens Preview
The newly-crowned world number 17, Sofia Kenin will be in second round action when she takes on Elise Mertens for the second time in her career. And just like the first time they played, Kenin will start off as a favourite to beat Mertens.
Looks a straightforward enough call to me. Kenin has been in the form of her life and her climb up the ranking ladder to a career-best 17th – up three places from last week – comes on the back of her third title win this season. In fact all her career titles have come this year.
Kenin then hopped over to Wuhan and won her opening round match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova with much ease and will now face the Mertens challenge.
Mertens was once a world number 12 but has fallen down to 24th but that doesn’t take away from the fact she was a quarterfinalist at the US Open and a semifinalist at Osaka last week.
That is also why there’s not much to separate the two in terms of odds, with Kenin at 10/11 and Mertens at 1/1 to win this. Kenin’s momentum should see this through.
Tip: Kenin to win: 10/11 with Unibet
Petra Martic v Rebecca Peterson Preview
This will be the first match between the 22nd-ranked Petra Martic and Rebecca Peterson (who is 53rd in the world). Martic is more a clay-court specialist, having won one title on it this year and lost just three of 18 matches she has played on it. That is not to say her hard court form has been underwhelming – far from it.
She made it to the final of the Zhengzhou Open where she lost to Karolina Pliskova and was an easy 6-2, 6-2 winner over Kristina Mladenovic in the first round here.
Making this a potentially brilliant match-up is the fact that despite Martic being ranked that much higher than her opponent, Peterson has been on an eight match winning streak. This also includes a couple of wins in the qualifiers of this tournament but the way she went a set ahead against Camile Giorgi in round one before she retired and her title win in Nanchang, this might not be a one-sided match.
Tip: Three sets in the match: 6/4 with Unibet