MATCH POINTS
Svetlana Kuznetsova returns to action against compatriot and No.6 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova today after a six-month hiatus during which the two-time Grand Slam champion rehabilitated a knee injury. Now ranked World No.109, Kuznetsova's last outing was in Guangzhou last September, where she reached the second round before falling to eventual champion Wang Qiang.
Local favorite Timea Bacsinszky opens against Tamara Korpatsch - against whom she is 0-1, having lost to the German 6-2, 7-5 in last September's Biarritz ITF W80 final, the tournament in which Bacsinszky snapped a 10-match losing streak after her own injury layoff. Korpatsch also has previous form in Switzerland: both of the World No.131's previous WTA quarterfinals have come in the Alpine country, at Gstaad 2017 and here in Lugano last year.
No.4 seed Alison Van Uytvanck trails Tereza Smitkova 1-2, although their match today will be their first encounter in over four years - and the first time they will have met off indoor hard courts. Budapest champion Van Uytvanck took their first match 6-2, 6-2 at the 2013 Loughborough ITF W25 event, but Smitkova went on to capture their Luxembourg qualifying tilt 6-4, 6-3 in the same year, as well as winning their second-round encounter 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 at the 2014 Limoges 125K.
Sorana Cirstea and Mona Barthel's head-to-head is all square at 1-1. Barthel won their first match, in Luxembourg qualifying in 2010, when the Romanian retired trailing 6-0, 3-1; seven years later, Cirstea got her revenge 7-6(3), 6-1 in the first round of Beijing.
Australian Open junior champion Clara Tauson made her WTA qualifying debut this weekend via wildcard, and will bid to make her WTA main draw debut today. The 16-year-old Dane is on a 16-match winning streak this year, having won all three of the ITF events she has contested - two W15s in Monastir and Xiamen and one W60 in Shenzhen.
28-year-old Italian Martina Di Giuseppe and 18-year-old Swiss wildcard Fiona Ganz will also seek to make their WTA main draw debuts by qualifying today, while 31-year-old Italian Giulia Gatto-Monticone - who hit a new career-high ranking of World No.173 this week - will bid to make her first WTA main draw since Kuala Lumpur in 2014.
ORDER OF PLAY
CENTRE COURT (starts 10.30am)
Qualifying - Tereza MRDEZA (CRO) vs [WC] Clara TAUSON (DEN)
Not before 1pm
[WC] Svetlana KUZNETSOVA (RUS) vs Ekaterina ALEXANDROVA (RUS) [6]
Viktorija GOLUBIC (SUI) vs Arantxa RUS (NED)
Timea BACSINSZKY (SUI) vs Tamara KORPATSCH (GER)
COURT 1 (starts 10.30am)
Qualifying - Barbara HAAS (AUT) vs Antonia LOTTNER (GER) [10]
Qualifying - [WC] Fiona GANZ (SUI) vs Giulia GATTO-MONTICONE (ITA)
Not before 1pm
Mona BARTHEL (GER) vs Sorana CIRSTEA (ROU)
Not before 3pm
Chantal SKAMLOVA (SVK) / Anastasia ZARYCKA (CZE) vs Cornelia LISTER (SWE) / Renata VORACOVA (CZE) [2]
COURT 2 (starts 10.30am)
Qualifying - Martina DI GIUSEPPE (ITA) vs Magdalena FRECH (POL) [11]
Qualifying - Tereza MARTINCOVA (CZE) [6] vs Reka-Luca JANI (HUN)
Not before 1pm
Tereza SMITKOVA (CZE) vs Alison VAN UYTVANCK (BEL) [4]
Prarthana THOMBARE (IND) / Ekaterina YASHINA (RUS) vs Vera LAPKO (BLR) / Mandy MINELLA (LUX)
COURT 3 (starts 11.30am)
Qualifying - Paula BADOSA GIBERT (ESP) [2] vs Katarina ZAVATSKA (UKR) [8]
