The WTA circuit is less than a month away from the WTA Finals in Singapore and the table is far from being settled. The Premier 5 event in Wuhan is the first leg of the Asian chunk of the calendar being held on Chinese soil. Beijing will be the next stop and the last Premier Mandatory event of the current season. Back to Wuhan, the first round produced a massive upset when it comes to some of the big names within the main draw. One by one, the former world No. 1 Angelique Kerber, 2017 Us Open champion Sloane Stephens or the runner-up at Flushing Meadows Madison Keys, all fell short in the inaugural round.
This makes the prediction job an even harder task that it was in the beginning. Once more, the WTA circuit shows that no one is truly safe, not even the well-established names.
Angelique Kerber suffered a huge upset from Caroline Garcia
Currently ranked twelve in the world, the two-time former Grand Slam champion had to face Caroline Garcia (20 WTA) in the first round. After a balanced start of the encounter, Kerber stepped in to take control of the match. Winning the set by 6-3 seemed to confirm the upward trend of the previous week when she made it to the semis in Tokyo. But, the 23-year-old Frenchwoman bounced back to level the score as she went on winning the second act by 6-3. The third act had the same Caroline Garcia pressing harder on the pedal while on the other side, an apparently deflated Kerber was unable to cope with the challenge standing in front of her.
The smart aggressive style of Garcia paid off as she raced past Kerber by 6-1 to book a spot in the next round where Christina McHale (79 WTA) awaits
Both 2017 US Open finalists slumped in Wuhan opener
Making her first official WTA appearance since winning the 2017 US Open, Sloane Stephens (17 WTA) was expected to make a deep run in Wuhan.
Her run came to a premature end as she lost to Qiang Wang in straight sets 6-2 6-2. It's an awful way to resume playing after a stellar display a few weeks ago in New York. A similar scenario happened to Madison Keys, the 2017 US Open runner-up. Varvara Lepchenko (76 WTA), a qualifier got past Keys in straight sets 6-2 7-6(4) to secure a place in the next phase
It's more than enough upset for the inaugural round.
It'll be interesting to watch how the top-seeded players like Garbine Muguruza, Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova, Caroline Wozniacki or Johanna Konta perform as they all received a bye for the opening round.
