MATCH POINTS
No.6 seed Petra Martic is coming off her maiden Premier semifinal in Charleston, where she defeated Amanda Anisimova and Belinda Bencic en route to the last four.
Rebecca Peterson takes on Pemra Ozgen for the second time, having previously triumphed 6-3, 7-5 in the second round of the ITF W25 event in Padova in 2017.
32-year-old Pemra Ozgen made her WTA main draw debut as a wildcard in Istanbul in 2005, the tournament's first year, losing to Ivana Abramovic in the first round. The Turkish player has scored one win in six previous main draws, over Arantxa Rus in Istanbul in 2009, and will compete in her first WTA main draw since Kuala Lumpur 2014 today.
Johanna Larsson is 1-0 against Margarita Gasparyan, having defeated the Russian 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the second round of Hobart in 2016.
Two former Top 30 players will bid to qualify today, Alexandra Dulgheru and Timea Babos. All three of Dulgheru's previous encounters with her opponent Kateryna Kozlova have also taken place in Istanbul: the pair first met in the ITF W50 event here in 2013, when the Romanian retired trailing 6-0, 1-0. The following year, Dulgheru took their first-round tilt at this tournament 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, but in 2016 Kozlova took the lead in their head-to-head with an epic 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-1 first-round win.
Qualifying wildcard Ipek Oz scored the first Top 200 win of her career yesterday over Fanny Stollar, and will bid to make the main draw with a second over Ana Bogdan. The Romanian had lost her first seven matches of 2019 before getting off the mark two weeks ago in Bogota, and her opening qualifying win over Anna Bondar was her second of the season.
ORDER OF PLAY
CENTER (starts 11am)
Qualifying - Veronika KUDERMETOVA (RUS) [1] vs Martina DI GIUSEPPE (ITA)
Qualifying - [WC] Ipek OZ (TUR) vs Ana BOGDAN (ROU) [7]
Not before 2pm
Qualifying - Timea BABOS (HUN) [5] vs Elena RYBAKINA (KAZ) [10]
Rebecca PETERSON (SWE) vs [WC] Pemra OZGEN (TUR)
Petra MARTIC (SLO) [6] vs Tamara ZIDANSEK (SLO)
COURT 1 (starts 11am)
Qualifying - Julia GLUSHKO (ISR) [4] vs Irina BARA (ROU)
Qualifying - Kateryna KOZLOVA (UKR) [2] vs Alexandra DULGHERU (ROU) [11]
Not before 2pm
Qualifying - Ivana JOROVIC (SRB) [3] vs Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS)
Johanna LARSSON (SWE) vs Margarita GASPARYAN (RUS)
COURT 2 (starts 1pm)
Andreea MITU (ROU) / Alexandra PANOVA (RUS) vs Prarthana THOMBARE (IND) / Eva WACANNO (NED)
[WC] Melis SEZER (TUR) / Ipek SOYLU (TUR) vs Monique ADAMCZAK (AUS) / Jessica MOORE (AUS)