WTA China Open, Beijing - day one

Round one of China Open started yesterday and Serena Williams beat Elena Vesnina in straight sets. 

It was a pretty tough first round for Serena and the first set was very competitive.

 But after winning the first set Serena was able to take control of the second set and win the second and the match.

Heather Watson lost to Vavara Lepenchko in three sets. Heather won the first set very comfortably then seemed to lose confidence and the match in the second and third set. 

This was a bad loss for Heather and her world ranking will now drop to ninety. Next week she has to defend her Osaka title and if she is unsuccessful then she will drop out of the top 100. 

Laura Robson beat Klara Zakopalova in three sets. It was a real battle in the first and second set but she won the third set comfortably and she now faces Angelique Kerber in the second round.

Swedish Open Semi-Finals

The first semi finals of the Swedish Open will take place between Serena Williams and Klara Zakopalova. So far Serena has had a relatively straightforward passage to the semi finals. 

After the disappointment of losing to Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round at Wimbledon. Serena has got back to her winning ways. Although this tournament is a tier two I guess you could say that a win is a win. 

Klara is a better player than Serena's previous opponents. However I expect Serena to win but in two tighter straight sets.

The second semi-final is between Flavia Pennetta and Johanna Larsson. I would expect that Flavia being the more experienced and the higher ranked player to win comfortably. 

Therefore the final would be between Serena Williams and Flavia Pennetta.