St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy, Russia

First match of the day pitted the Russian teenager, Elena Rybakina, against the sneaky Belgian. Julia Goerges is at an all-time career high of number twelve and she has been playing like a top-tier player. She ended her 2017 season on a high and began 2018 by winning a title in Auckland. She came up short at the Australian Open; however, she is back to playing some quality tennis. She battled past the teenager 6-3, 6-3.

Second match was a battle between two familiar foes, Kristina Mladenovic and Katerina Siniakova. Mladenovic is slowly working her way back into form and she is back at number ten this week and playing like she now believes that she belongs there. Despite going down a break in the second set, the Frenchwoman had no problems breaking her opponent to get back on serve. Frustrated at losing the lead, Siniakova lost focus and belief. Mladenovic broke again and won 6-4, 6-3.

The third match was a surprise, either [2] Jelena Ostapenko was not feeling well or Petra Kvitova simply played superb tennis. I watched the match thinking that soon, Ostapenko would get going, but she never did. Her game was marred by a slew of errors and against an opponent like Kvitova, it was a recipe for disaster. Pouting as she felt the match slipping quickly out of her grasp, the Latvian could not mount any resistance and Kvitova won 6-0, 6-2.

The final match of the day involved the current number one, [1] Caroline Wozniacki, against Daria Kasatkina. In their one previous encounter, the Russian lost in straight sets. However, this time she had home court advantage and she used it to her advantage against her opponent, who was probably not fully recovered from her grueling run at the Australian Open. The first set could have gone either way; however, it went the way of the Russian and she won the match 7-6(2), 6-3.

SOURCE OF IMAGES:  Zimbio.com (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images AsiaPac: Petra Kvitova)