It was first round Saturday at the 2015 China Open, and the scene was set for another day of great tennis. The final Premier Mandatory stop in the WTA calendar, this multi-million dollar tournament in the capital of China has always been a popular tournament with the players and fans. Among the players in action on day two were top seeds Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova, Flavia Pennetta, Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki.

At the end of day two, there were a mixed bag of results for the seeds. Halep was forced to retire due to an Achilles injury, Kvitova lost at the first hurdle to Sara Errani, and Karolina Pliskova looked depleted en route to a 6-3, 6-2 loss to Sloane Stephens. However, there were some great results for other seeded players. US Open champion Flavia Pennetta was severely tested by Chinese wildcard Han Xinyun in her first match since winning in Flushing Meadows, but used her experience to win in three sets.

Caroline Wozniacki, who has been struggling in recent months with various injuries and dips in form, made a winning return back to Beijing by defeating Bojana Jovanovski relatively comfortably. Agnieszka Radwanska, advanced to the second round without even needing to play two complete sets, as her opponent Coco Vandeweghe retired after the opening set.

Beginning the day session on the National Tennis Stadium in Beijing, was US Open champion Flavia Pennetta. Pennetta, who was returning to action for the first time since her historic triumph at Flushing Meadows, was severely tested in what could have been her last professional tennis match. Moments after winning her maiden Grand Slam singles title in New York City, the 33-year-old from Brindisi announced that she would be retiring once the 2015 season comes to a close. Coming into her first round match against Han Xinyun, most people thought it would be a walk in the park for Pennetta. But in reality, it was anything but that.

Han nearly shocks Pennetta

Han, a 25-year-old Chinese woman who was awarded a wildcard into the main draw, threw everything but the kitchen sink at Pennetta. Han was playing extraordinarily well, and you would have never guessed that her career high ranking was only 125 in the world (based on her performance in this encounter). Pennetta had to fight extremely hard to win the opening set 7-5, after trading multiple breaks with her Chinese counterpart. From there, the Italian raced out to a 2-0 lead in the second set and things were beginning to look ominous for Han. However, the Chinese woman continued to use her devilish left handed spin to pull Pennetta all over the court, frustrating the US Open champion in the process. 

To the astonishment of all the spectators in Beijing, Han won the second set 6-4 and raced out to a 2-0 lead in the third. At this point in the match, Pennetta was in deep trouble but never panicked, and played the bigger points better than her opponent, which eventually earned her a hard-fought 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 win. She will play Teliana Pereira next.

Kvitova downed

Next up on the Centre Court was second seed Petra Kvitova and Sara Errani. Kvitova was diagnosed with mononucleosis this past July, and the two-time Wimbledon champion has openly talked about her struggles with fatigue midway through her matches. Because of this, she has not had a great last couple of months but she was able to make the quarter finals of the US Open for the first time in eight attempts. Her opponent, Sara Errani, has not had a great year by her standards but the Italian has remained consistent in almost all of the tournaments she has played in 2015.

Errani is a former French Open finalist, but has begun to improve on all surfaces. Her admirable defensive style, and never-say-die attitude has been the reason why she has achieved so much success in the years. Coming into this match, Kvitova was a perfect 6-0 against Errani but the Italian looked to change that. Both players traded two breaks in the opening set before the Italian got a crucial third in the 11th game that helped her win the opening set 7-5.

The second set was basically a mirror image of the first with both players trading two breaks before Errani got a third break that Kvitova was unable to recover. After breaking at 4-4, the Italian saved two break points and converted her first match point to send last year’s finalist packing. With this 7-5, 6-4 win, Sara Errani moves into the second round and will play Caroline Garcia, who defeated home favourite Zheng Saisai in straight sets. It is worth noting that Garcia has a winning record against Errani, and the Frenchwoman actually defeated the Italian last week in Wuhan.

Halep retires due to Achilles injury

To round off the day session, Simona Halep and Lara Arruabarrena battled for a place in the second round. Halep, who has been playing extremely well in recent months, began to feel the effects of playing a lot of tennis. During the Emirates Airline US Open Series, the world number two began to feel pain on her thigh, which later escalated to her Achilles. The top seed in Beijing this week looked to be moving well early on against qualifier Lara Arruabarrena, but the pain in her Achilles began to flair up again, which made her make the unfortunate decision top retire. Arruabarrena is through to the second round with a 5-4 win by retirement. The WTA rising star will play Bethanie Mattek-Sands next, who defeated Alizé Cornet in straight sets.

Wozniacki kicks off the night session

To start the night session, eighth seed Caroline Wozniacki faced Bojana Jovanovski. Wozniacki has been struggling with injury in recent months, and her form has been significantly affected. After falling in the opening round of Wuhan last weekend, the former world number one came to Beijing desperate for some good wins to raise her confidence and chances of qualifying for Singapore or Zhuhai. Jovanovski, has begun to play some of the tennis that got her to a career high of number 32 in the world.

After making the semifinals at the Tashkent Open on Saturday, the Serbian flew overnight to Beijing to play qualifying. On Sunday, she won two matches to qualify for the main draw. As you would expect, Jovanovski has a lot of confidence in her game right now and she knows how to beat Wozniacki, considering that she beat her twice in 2013. In this encounter, it was Wozniacki who got off to a better start, by winning the opening set 6-2. Minutes later, the former world number one found herself serving for the match up a set and 5-0.

Despite having a steep mountain to climb, Jovanovski refused to give up, and began to mount a late comeback. The Serb held, broke, held and broke to erase the double break lead Wozniacki had set up. But in the end, it was the Dane who was able to capitalize on some miscues and unforced errors from Jovanovski to win the match 6-2, 6-4. Wozniacki will play Qiang Wang next, whom she lost to in Kuala Lumpur last year.

Meanwhile on the Lotus Court, fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Coco Vandeweghe 6-3 by retirement. Radwanska and Vandeweghe met in Tokyo just two weeks ago, with the Pole coming out on top. Judging by the opening set, it looked like it would be a repeat of the same result. However, after the fourth seed won the opening set, the American decided she couldn’t continue due to the effects of a bad ankle injury that she sustained in Wuhan a few days ago.

Other seeds who advanced on day three were Elina Svitolina and Carla Suarez Navarro. Svitolina defeated the feisty Yulia Putintseva in straight sets, while Suarez Navarro defeated Lesia Tsurenko by retirement after taking the opening set.

Other winners on day two included Alison Van Uytvanck, Mona Barthel, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Dominika Cibulkova and qualifiers Irina Falconi, Kateryna Bondarenko, Mónica Puig, and Mariana Duque-Mariño.

Headlining Day Three...

On day three, the first round encounter between Andrea Petkovic and Eugenie Bouchard is arguably the most anticipated match of the day. Petkovic hasn’t had a great summer but being the fighter that she is, she will do everything in her power to pull her game back to where it should be, in order to have any chance of qualifying for Singapore or Zhuhai. As for Bouchard, she has been suffering from a concussion that she had sustained ever since she slipped and fell in the locker room at this year’s US Open.

That concussion forced her to withdraw from all three of her events at Flushing Meadows, as well as last week’s Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open — where she was supposed to defend finalist points. There will be a lot of questions surrounding both women, more so Bouchard than Petkovic but this first round encounter is a must-win match for both of them.

Also in action tomorrow is teenage superstar Belinda Bencic, fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, US Open finalist Roberta Vinci, and WTA rising star Madison Keys. All four of those women are still in contention of qualifying for the WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global (which will be played later this month), which means they must all win on Monday to keep their bids for a spot in the elite eight alive. If they all fall early in Beijing, their chances could be in danger as most of them — excluding Radwanska — will not play much tennis after this week. However, the good thing for these players is, the players who are ranked 9th to 20th on the Road to Singapore leaderboard, will be able to compete in the inaugural WTA Elite Trophy event in Zhuhai, China. With a field that strong, there is guaranteed to be some high quality matches during the last week of the 2015 WTA season.