MATCH POINTS

No.1 seed Belinda Bencic opens her campaign against rising 21-year-old Anna Blinkova, who sits at a career high ranking of World No.58 and will be going for her first Top 10 scalp in five meetings - having stretched Naomi Osaka to three sets in her most recent such encounter, in the first round of the US Open last year.

18-year-old wildcard Wang Xiyu will bid for both her maiden WTA quarterfinal and first Top 20 scalp at the third attempt against No.3 seed Elise Mertens. The 2018 US Open junior champion previously lost 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(8) to Daria Kasatkina in the second round of Wuhan 2018 after holding four match points, and 6-4, 6-1 in the second round of Miami last year to Kiki Bertens.

Zarina Diyas opened her season by winning the Hong Kong ITF W25 title last week, but will have to overcome a 1-2 head-to-head deficit against wildcard Duan Yingying. The Chinese player won their first encounter 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the second round of the 2013 Gifu ITF W50 before Diyas gained a 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-4 revenge in Osaka qualifying the same year; Duan went on to take their most recent meeting 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of Kuala Lumpur 2017.

No.8 seed Zhang Shuai will bid to reach her maiden Shenzhen quarterfinal against Kateryna Bondarenko, who is playing the fourth tournament back from her second maternity leave and is aiming to make her first WTA quarterfinal since winning Tashkent 2017. Bondarenko won their only previous encounter 6-4, 6-4, in Doha 2011 qualifying.

Kristyna Pliskova is seeking her sixth career Top 20 win against defending champion and No.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka. Pliskova's only prior completed Top 20 victory on hard courts also came in Shenzhen when she upset Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 6-4 in the first round in 2018.

ORDER OF PLAY (all courts start 11am)

CENTRE COURT
[1] Belinda BENCIC (SUI) vs Anna BLINKOVA (RUS)
Kristyna PLISKOVA (CZE) vs [2] Aryna SABALENKA (BLR)
Not before 2pm
[WC] WANG Xiyu vs [3] Elise MERTENS (BEL)
[7] Elena RYBAKINA (KAZ) vs WANG Yafan (CHN)

COURT 1
[WC] DUAN Yingying (CHN) vs Zarina DIYAS (KAZ)
[8] ZHANG Shuai (CHN) vs Kateryna BONDARENKO (UKR)
[WC] JIANG Xinyu (CHN) / TANG Qianhui (CHN) vs [4] PENG Shuai (CHN) / ZHANG Shuai (CHN)

COURT 2
Sharon FICHMAN (CAN) / Miyu KATO (JPN) vs HAN Xinyun (CHN) / ZHU Lin (CHN)
Cornelia LISTER (SWE) / Sabrina SANTAMARIA (USA) vs [2] Barbora KREJCIKOVA (CZE) / Katerina SINIAKOVA (CZE)
Irina-Camelia BEGU (ROU) / Kristyna PLISKOVA (CZE) vs Dalila JAKUPOVIC (SLO) / Raluca OLARU (ROU)