Main draw action kicked off in Wuhan on Sunday with a surprisingly solid crowd on hand for what was an eventful opening day on the Centre Court.  In the first match of the day, the Chinese wildcard, Xu Shilin was forced to retire due to heat exhaustion at 0-5 down in the third set tiebreak to Alison Riske.  The third match was also eventful as Caroline Garcia saved a match point to defeat Venus Williams in a third set tiebreak.  The fourth and final match of the day saw Andrea Petkovic come from a set down to beat Donna Vekic.  The third set featured some excellent rallies, but Petkovic was the steadier and more focused player as she progressed into the second round.

1. Agnieszka Radwanska v Caroline Garcia (Wuhan, R2)

The Aga-Venus-Vika-JJ mini-section has already broken up with Victoria Azarenka pulling out of Wuhan and all tournaments in 2014 (very smart move) and Venus Williams exiting to Caroline Garcia.  It was the best performance in a while from Garcia, who recovered from 5-2* down in the third set and saved a match point.  The first set was a little scrappy, but there were moments of genius from Garcia, who played the big points well saving five break points.  In the second set, Venus held off an aggressive charge from Garcia at 4-4 and then broke to love to force a decider.  Garcia was ultra-aggressive and her return position was wayyyy inside the baseline at the end.  Venus had the match in her hands, but a mixture of Garcia zoning and some sloppy unforced errors saw Garcia force a third set tiebreak, which she won.

It was a superb win for Garcia, but her game style will naturally produce inconsistent performances as we have seen for much of 2014.  In the second round, she plays Agnieszka Radwanska.  The world number 5 had a bye in the first round and suffered a quarter-final loss in Seoul to Varvara Lepchenko.  Her form hasn’t been the best and her draw in Wuhan is tricky, but I have a feeling she will do fine this week.  Radwanska and Garcia last met in the quarter-finals of Madrid; Radwanska won 6-4 4-6 6-4 in a high quality encounter.  This is a tough turnaround for Garcia, but a match on the quick Centre Court will probably go in her favour.  Aga to battle through…

Prediction: Radwanska d. Garcia in 3 sets

2. Maria Sharapova v Svetlana Kuznetsova (Wuhan, R2)

Photo by Omar Boraby

Maria Sharapova has the late-night session on Monday in Wuhan as she will play Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round.  Kuznetsova snapped a three match losing streak to defeat Kurumi Nara for the second time this year, 6-3 6-2.  She has had some super results this year, but they have interspersed around some shaky ones too.  Kuznetsova’s talent can never be denied, but in recent years, it has been the mental side of her game that has let her down.  This will be the 11th match that Sharapova and Kuznetsova have played with Sharapova winning six of ten previous encounters.  The pair haven’t played since 2011 when Sharapova won in Cincy, 6-2 6-3.  I could see Kuznetsova winning a set, but personally, I don’t think this is worthy of having an upset alert.

Prediction: Sharapova d. Kuznetsova in 2 tight sets