One of the marquee matchups at the round of 64 of the Wuhan Open will feature 12th-seeded Donna Vekic battling a formidable opponent in Belgian Elise Mertens.
At the US Open this past summer, Vekic was eliminated by Qinwen Zheng in three sets in the round of 16, while Mertens competed at the Jasmin Open last month and exited at that same stage in three sets versus Eva Lys.
Match preview
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Elise Mertens enters this tournament hoping to improve her form on the hard court, making it only as far as the last 16 in her last five tournaments played on that surface.
That said, some of her best results earlier this year were on hard courts, capturing the Australian Open doubles crown on that surface alongside partner Hsieh Su-Wei.
The 28-year-old has shown she still has the potential to make deep runs at tournaments, but her unforced errors have often got in her way, hitting over 200 double faults (219) in 47 matches this year.
In 2024, she has won 58.6% of her service points while also winning 68% of her first serves and hitting an impressive 156 aces thus far.
On the other hand, Mertens has also converted 45.4% of her break points but has only been able to win 34.5% of her return games this year.
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Donna Vekic has been close to winning a WTA tournament several times this year, but that first victory in 2024 continues to elude her.
A silver medallist on the women's singles draw at the Paris Olympics, she followed that up with an early exit in the round of 64 at the Cincinnati Open versus Ashlyn Krueger before Zheng took her out in the last 16 at Flushing Meadow, just as she did in their gold medal showdown in the French capital.
This year, Vekic's best finish on the hard court occurred near the beginning of 2024, making the semi-finals of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz event before losing to Ekaterina Alexandrova.
The Croatian has competed in 42 matches this year, hitting 207 aces over that span, but she has also registered an almost identical number of double faults, 198 this year to be exact.
Overall, though, she has won 72% of her first serves and 75.7% of her service games in 2024, while managing to save 55% of her break points.
We say: Donna Vekic to win in three sets
Mertens is an experienced player who is capable of winning this match, but although Vekic can, at times, be her own worst enemy with errors, her power might ultimately prove to be too much for the Belgian to contain.
Joel Lefevre
