WTA Wuhan Qualifying - Can Chinese youngster trouble struggling veteran?

Asian Swing Continues

The WTA Asian swing is in full force. After two loaded weeks with three tournaments each, there will be two tournaments next week, an International event in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and a Premier 5 event in Wuhan, China.

The qualifying of the latter starts tonight and there will be a battle of the generations which I'm really looking forward to. 35-year-old Svetlana Kuznetsova takes on yet another talented young Chinese player in Qinwen Zheng.

Promising Young Talent

The 16-year-old is coming off a good US Open where she reached the semifinals in the juniors competition. I believe she should have achieved even more though as she's been the favorite against Yepifanova in the penultimate round of a field missing some top tier players. However, Zheng is now #6 in the junior rankings and has spent the whole year inside the top 10.

Many juniors struggle to break through to the main tour immediately, however Zheng is a player I've observed for quite some time now and she has improved a lot this year. As an IMG player, she received a Wild Card into the Premier 5 event in Miami earlier this year. In the first round of qualifying, she got beaten by Taylor Townsend, 6-4 5-7 4-6, which is not the worst of losses. In the two ITF 25k events she played this summer, her only losses came against Ankita Raina and Pemra Ozgen, who I rate as better players on the ITF circuit.

Struggling Svetlana

In tonight's match, the young Chinese will have to face two-time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova from Russia. The veteran showed some great form in the US hard court swing, culminating by reaching the final in Cincinnati. At the US Open however, she lost in the first round to Kristie Ahn and subsequently pulled out of the WTA event in Guangzhou last week due to a left leg injury. When carrying an injury, you don't want to face a 100% motivated youngster playing at home. So there might be a chance for Qinwen Zheng to exploit the struggles of her opponent.

I'll split my stakes on Zheng to win the match and to win a set, which can be found at bet365 in the "Player" section. You have to go to "To Win in Straight Sets" - "Svetlana Kuznetsova" - "No". The bet on Zheng to win the match, I would rather play on a bookie that pays out on retirements, as I do see the possibility of Kuznetsova pulling out if she's not healthy.