WTA Week in Preview: China Open

Eternal Topic A at this time of year is the length of the tour schedules. Once we have that out of the way (I discussed it here last week), we can move on to Eternal Topic B: The pros and cons of a so-called fifth Grand Slam. This concept begins to seem more plausible when the players arrive at the China Open in Beijing, as they have this week. It’s a dual-gender event—mandatory for the women, appearance-fee heaven for the men—in tennis’ future country of choice. With the boys and girls all together again in one place, it doesn’t take much to imagine the tournament as a major.

I like the idea of a Slam in China. For now, though, we can just call the country’s Open a big event, and another reason to keep following in the fall. Here’s a look at what to watch for on the women’s side this week. I’ll have the men’s previews of Beijing and Tokyo later today.

Beijing
$5,427,105; Premier Mandatory
DecoTurf
Draw is here

One thing you can say for the Asian swing: There’s money to be had. Even if the women weren’t required to play the China Open, they would have to be tempted by the more than $5 million on offer for its 64 players. Whatever it took to get the big names on board, it worked: The WTA’s Top 10 are all present and accounted for in Beijing. And unlike Tokyo and Wuhan the last two weeks, most of them have survived their opening matches. The only seeds to fall so far are No. 10 Jelena Jankovic and No. 11 Sara Errani.

The most newsworthy winner was also the least surprising: Top seed Serena Williams came back from an early 0-5 deficit, and saved three set points, to beat Silvia Soler-Espinosa 7-5, 6-2. Last week, Serena had retired due to a viral illness, but today she said, “I’m really good now. I mean, every day I’m getting better, so I feel so much better now.” The first seed Serena is scheduled to play is Lucie Safarova; in the quarters she could face her old friend, Caroline Wozniacki, or possibly her new nemesis, Alizé Cornet.

Other seeds have also improved on their Wuhan performances: Simona Halep beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, Maria Sharapova beat Kaia Kanepi, Agnieszka Radwanska beat CoCo Vandeweghe, Venus Williams beat Heather Watson. Most notably, Ana Ivanovic sent U.S. Open quarterfinalist Belinda Bencic packing, 6-2, 6-1.

Ivanovic, who retired with a leg problem last week, also happens to be trying to lock up a spot in the year-end championships in Singapore. She’s currently in eighth place, and just behind her is Angelique Kerber, who also won her first-round match yesterday. So far four players have officially qualified—Serena, Sharapova, Halep, and Kvitova. Four others—Radwanska, Bouchard, Ivanovic, and Wozniacki—are close.

Two players of interest to me are No. 2 Halep and No. 3 Kvitova. With Li Na retired, these two may be Serena’s stiffest competition for No. 1 in 2015. Who will finish stronger in 2014? Kvitova, who is slated to play Serena in the semis in Beijing, has ended other seasons on the upswing; if she does it again, can she use it as a springboard for something bigger next year?

In the meantime, here are a few second-round matches to watch:

—Maria Sharapova vs. Elina Svitolina

—Andrea Petkovic vs. Madison Keys

—Caroline Wozniacki vs. Sam Stosur

—Genie Bouchard vs. Sabine Lisicki

—Venus Williams vs. Caroline Garcia