MATCH POINTS
An intriguing first-round clash pits No.6 seed Elena Rybakina against qualifier and former World No.10 Daria Kasatkina for the first time. Rybakina has reached a Tour-leading five finals in 2020, including her first at Premier level indoors in St. Petersburg, while Kasatkina is bidding for her first Top 20 victory since defeating Aryna Sabalenka in the second round of Beijing last year.
Two further first-time meetings find US Open semifinalist Jennifer Brady facing Adelaide runner-up Dayana Yastremska and 16-year-old qualifier Coco Gauff taking on wildcard and former doubles World No.1 Katerina Siniakova. Both Yastremska and Brady will be looking to bounce back from first-round exits at Roland Garros and rediscover their earlier 2020 hard-court form. Gauff, meanwhile, had her best results of the year in reaching the Australian Open fourth round and Lexington semifinals - but since the latter tournament has won just two of six main-draw matches. By contrast, Siniakova lost nine of her first 11 main-draw matches of 2020, but in recent weeks has recovered to reach the Strasbourg quarterfinals and Roland Garros third round.
Head to Head
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Today marks the third time in as many meetings that Donna Vekic and qualifier Veronika Kudermetova have played each other indoors. Their previous encounters were both in St. Petersburg and won by Vekic - in 2017, the Croat battled through the first round of the ITF $100K event 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-4 and in 2019 took their second-round clash in the WTA Premier event 6-4, 6-3.
A battle of hand skills and rare shotmaking finds home favorite Barbora Strycova taking on Australian Open quarterfinalist Ons Jabeur for the second time. Strycova was a 6-1, 6-3 victor in their only previous meeting, in the first round of Wuhan 2017.
ORDER OF PLAY (all courts start 12 noon)
CENTRE COURT
[Q] Veronika KUDERMETOVA (RUS) vs Donna VEKIC (CRO)
Not before 1.30pm
[6] Elena RYBAKINA (KAZ) vs [Q] Daria KASATKINA (RUS)
ZHANG Shuai (CHN) vs Karolina MUCHOVA (CZE)
Not before 6pm
[WC] Katerina SINIAKOVA (CZE) vs [Q] Coco GAUFF (USA)
Barbora STRYCOVA (CZE) vs Ons JABEUR (TUN)
COURT 1
[1] Elise MERTENS (BEL) / Aryna SABALENKA (BLR) vs [WC] Jesika MALECKOVA (CZE) / Chantal SKAMLOVA (SVK)
[4] Kirsten FLIPKENS (BEL) / Demi SCHUURS (NED) vs Lucie HRADECKA (CZE) / Andreja KLEPAC (SLO)
Not before 2.30pm
Dayana YASTREMSKA (UKR) vs Jennifer BRADY (USA)
Anna BLINKOVA (RUS) / Veronika KUDERMETOVA (RUS) vs Magda LINETTE (POL) / Jil TEICHMANN (SUI)
Nadiia KICHENOK (UKR) / Monica NICULESCU (ROU) vs Anna-Lena FRIEDSAM (GER) / Raluca OLARU (ROU)
