Tuesday was a day of many minor surprises, which when all added up together resulted in decimation of the Wuhan draw.  Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic both retired from their matches, but the most high profile loss was Simona Halep who went out to Garbine Muguruza in three sets.  The biggest surprise for me was Ekaterina Makarova’s 6-4 6-1 loss to Timea Bacsinszky.  Although Bacsinszky has been in great form, Makarova has been so solid this year.  In fact, this was the first time in 2014 she has lost to a player outside of the top 30.  Her previous “worst” loss in terms of ranking had been to Svetlana Kuznetsova (#26) in the semi-finals of DC.

Poll Results: 38% correctly predicted that Muguruza would upset Halep

1. Karolina Pliskova v Petra Kvitova (Wuhan, R3)

The line-up of matches for the third round on Wednesday has taken a hit with so many of the seeds falling.  Five of the 16 seeds remain and one of those is Petra Kvitova.  In fact, the only seed to win through to the third round in straight sets was PETRA.

Kvitova takes on the in-form, Karolina Pliskova in the third match on the Centre Court.  This is Pliskova’s third tournament in as many weeks, having reached the final in Hong Kong and won Seoul on Sunday.  I expected Pliskova to be fatigued and drop out early, but she has won both her matches in Wuhan in straight sets against two very competent players in Sam Stosur and Andrea Petkovic.  Pliskova is on a seven match winning streak and hasn’t had a day off since last Thursday.  Kudos to one of my readers, Andrew who tipped Pliskova to have a good week.

Pliskova has had a very consistent year with two top ten wins over Ana Ivanovic at the US Open and Angelique Kerber in Nurnberg. Pliskova’s biggest issues for me have been her movement around the court.  She often looks a little casual; Her loss to Sabine Lisicki in the final of Hong Kong demonstrated some of those issues as she was unable to capitalise on a huge lead in the first set.  However the amount of wins she has racked up over the past three weeks and generally this year, show that this run isn’t a flash in the pan.  Furthermore, her serve and groundstrokes when on, are some of the most impressive on the WTA tour.

Petra and Karolina have never played before.  Nothing will surprise me based on what we have seen so far this week in Wuhan.  I’m going for Petra to reach the quarter-finals, who I would now expect to reach the final.  Famous last words…

Prediction: Kvitova d. Ka.Pliskova in 3 sets

WTA Wuhan 3rd Round Predictions

Alize Cornet d. Kirsten Flipkens in 3 sets *I expected Alize to be fatigued this week, but it doesn’t seem the case at all!*

Eugenie Bouchard d. Alison Riske in 2 tight sets

Maria Sharapova d. Timea Bacsinszky in 2 sets (1 tight, 1 easy)

Caroline Wozniacki d. Casey Dellacqua in 2 sets

Caroline Garcia d. Coco Vandeweghe in 3 sets

Angelique Kerber d. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in 2 tight sets

Garbine Muguruza d. Elina Svitolina in 3 sets