Garcia dropped just five games in first round action in Tianjin
No.2 seed Caroline Garcia needed little more than an hour to book her place in the second round of the Tianjin Open on Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Chinese qualifier Xun Fang Ying.
Xun Fang Ying
Despite over 200 places between them in the world rankings, the 23-year-old home favorite kept pace with the World No.16 in the opening set, coming from an early break down to level at 4-4.
However, the French No.1 broke again - this time at love - in the ninth game of the opener en route to sealing it, and never trailed over the course of the second set to book her place in the second round in 69 minutes.
Garcia dropped just four points on serve in the second set, and also won the last four games of the match to set a second-round meeting with another Chinese qualifier in Zhang Yuxuan, who ousted Irina-Camelia Begu, 7-5, 6-3.
On the other side of the coin, Caroline Garcia had an easy win in her opening round fixture. In that win, Caroline Garcia won in straight sets by breaking her opponents serve on 5 occasions while only losing one service game. Caroline Garcia has struggled over the past few months and she has fallen down the rankings. That being said, Garcia looked in great form in her opening round match and she will expect to win this match considering she is significantly more accomplished than her opponent. Caroline Garcia has an exceptional record in China having won the WTA China Open and WTA Wuhan Open in 2017. With such a strong record in this country, Caroline Garcia will be hard to beat.
Zhang Yuxuan
This will be the first time that Caroline Garcia and Zhang Yuxuan will be playing each other at a WTA event.
Jana Cepelova
All in all, I am going to pick Caroline Garcia to win this match. Garcia is much more accomplished than her opponent and has significantly greater experience at WTA events. With an incredible record in China, I see Caroline Garcia winning this match and making the third round of the tournament.
Wang Yafan
In other first round action in the bottom half of the draw, No.3 seed Elise Mertens battled through a tough opener before seeing off China's Zhu Lin, 7-5, 6-1, while Slovak qualifier Jana Cepelova defeated Wang Yafan in just under two-and-a-half hours, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.