MATCH POINTS
No.10 seed Dayana Yastremska, at 19 years old the youngest player in Zhuhai this year, has faced No.8 seed Donna Vekic once before, winning their St Petersburg ITF 100K semifinal in 2017 when the Croat retired trailing 6-3, 2-0.
No.6 seed Elise Mertens and No.9 seed Maria Sakkari are all square at 3-3 against each other. The pair played four times in ITF events in 2014, with Mertens winning three of those encounters - but since graduating to the WTA Tour, Sakkari has had the upper hand, winning their 2016 Australian Open qualifying tilt 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 and their Rabat quarterfinal this year 6-4, 7-6(2).
An all-American derby finds No.2 seed Sofia Kenin and No.7 seed Alison Riske meeting for the first time - the third ever clash of compatriots in Zhuhai following Venus Williams's defeat of Madison Keys in 2015 and Petra Kvitova's win over Barbora Strycova in 2016, both at the round robin stage. Williams and Kvitova both went on to win the tournament.
Alison Riske is 12-19 against fellow Americans in WTA main draws, and is on a five-match losing streak to her countrywomen - with her last win coming in the first round of Tokyo 2017 against Madison Brengle. Meanwhile, Sofia Kenin's lifetime record against Americans in WTA main draws is 9-5.
ORDER OF PLAY (starts 1.30pm)
STADIUM
[1] DUAN Yingying (CHN) / YANG Zhaoxuan (CHN) vs [6/WC] WANG Xinyu (CHN) / ZHU Lin (CHN)
Not before 3pm
[6] Elise MERTENS (BEL) vs [9] Maria SAKKARI (GRE)
[8] Donna VEKIC (CRO) vs [10] Dayana YASTREMSKA (UKR)
Not before 7pm
[2] Sofia KENIN (USA) vs [7] Alison RISKE (USA)
