Guangzhou and Seoul: Great wall of Denmark

Seoul:

Singles - Second Round
(1) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. (Q) Caroline Garcia (FRA) 62 63
María José Martínez Sánchez (ESP) d. (4) Nadia Petrova (RUS) w/o (low back injury)
(6) Varvara Lepchenko (USA) d. Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) 64 61
(7) Klara Zakopalova (CZE) d. Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) 61 76(6)
(8) Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) d. (Q) Jamie Hampton (USA) 63 75
Tamira Paszek (AUT) d. (WC) Lee So-Ra (KOR) 62 60

Guangzhou:

Singles - Quarterfinals
(3) Sorana Cirstea (ROU) d. (8) Alizé Cornet (FRA) 64 63
(4) Urszula Radwanska (POL) d. (5) Chanelle Scheepers (RSA) 61 75
Laura Robson (GBR) d. (7) Peng Shuai (CHN) 75 57 62
Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE) d. Mathilde Johansson (FRA) 63 60

(1) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. (Q) Caroline Garcia (FRA) 62 63

Caroline continues her resurgence by brushing aside Garcia in straightforward fashion. Against someone as consistent as Wozniacki, Garcia didn't have the patience to wait for the appropriate time to go for the winner and ended up hitting herself out of the match. What's heartening to see is that Wozniacki is being aggressive on Garcia's second delivery, so the Dane is finally finding a nice middle ground to be consistent and aggressive at the same time. She will be tough to stop in Korea.

(6) Varvara Lepchenko (USA) d. Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) 64 61

Lepchenko continues her assault towards the top 20 with a convincing win over a respectable opponent. Anabel is not an easy opponent to put away as she is very scrappy and consistent. Varvara's journey in tennis is an inspiration to many, so it's good to see her do well. She will face Tamira Pazsek which is a very winnable match. It's almost certain that Lepchenko will end the year in the top 20 by the way she's playing; so I expect her to do well and maybe sneak out with a title here.

(3) Sorana Cirstea (ROU) d. (8) Alizé Cornet (FRA) 64 63

Well well, how wrong was I to predict that Alize will trouble Sorana. Seems like Cirstea had one of her days where everything is clicking. Besides that, Alize was having trouble with her service games, hence the easy scoreline. Does Sorana have the game to win the title? Definitely. But does she have the mental capability and discipline to do it? Unlikely. I see Robson beating her in the next round and eventually clinch the title.

Laura Robson (GBR) d. (7) Peng Shuai (CHN) 75 57 62

Laura Robson took 3 hours to defeat Peng Shuai in a roller coaster match. Robson led 5-1 in the first set and lost multiple set points before winning it 7-5. However, Peng fought like her life depended on this match and levelled the match at one set all. This is where Laura is most impressive. A player without the experience would have crumbled after losing such a tight second set but Robson didn't. She won the 3rd set handily (despite it being quite close) to oust another Chinese player. Let's hope she has enough reserves for her quarter-final match tomorrow because she is to me, the big favourite to win the title.