MATCH POINTS
No.7 seed Petra Martic leads the head-to-head against No.1 seed Karolina Pliskova 4-1 - although Pliskova's sole victory in the series was also their only previous meeting on hard courts, a 6-3, 6-4 triumph in the second round of Miami this March.
Otherwise, Martic has racked up straight-sets wins over the Czech in the ITF 50K event in Zlin in 2009, a brace of grass contests in 2013 in the Nottingham ITF 75K final and the second round of Wimbledon, and their most recent encounter, 6-3, 6-3 in the third round of Roland Garros this year.
Karolina Pliskova is contesting her 27th career final, and fifth of the season. Overall, the former World No.1 is 14-12 in finals, and 3-1 in 2019 with victories over Lesia Tsurenko in Brisbane, Johanna Konta in Rome and Angelique Kerber in Eastbourne, and a loss to Ashleigh Barty in Miami.
Currently, Pliskova's three trophies put her in joint first place for the year along with Barty and Bianca Andreescu; victory in Zhengzhou would put her out in front by herself with four.
Petra Martic is playing her fourth career final, and first at Premier level. The Croat lost her first two finals, retiring to Hsieh Su-wei in Kuala Lumpur in 2012 and falling to Anastasija Sevastova in Bucharest in 2018, but defeated Marketa Vondrousova 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 to lift her maiden trophy in Istanbul this April.
Karolina Pliskova has lost both of her previous finals on mainland Chinese soil, falling 7-5, 7-6(6) to Venus Williams in Zhuhai in 2015 and 7-6(7), 6-3 to Caroline Garcia in Tianjin last year.
ORDER OF PLAY (starts 2pm)
CENTRE COURT
[1] Karolina PLISKOVA (CZE) vs [7] Petra MARTIC (CRO)
[1] Nicole MELICHAR (USA) / Kveta PESCHKE (CZE) or Desirae KRAWCZYK (USA) / Ellen PEREZ (AUS) vs Yanina WICKMAYER (BEL) / Tamara ZIDANSEK (SLO)
