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WUHAN, China – Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova captured the Wuhan title on Saturday to secure their return for the second year in succession to the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

Despite starting the week in seventh place on the Road To Singapore leaderboard, Mattek-Sands and Safarova’s seventh title together saw them become the fourth team to secure a spot at the season-ending showpiece.

“Singapore last year was awesome. It’s the year-end championships, the best of the best. Only the best teams get to go, so I think it’s an honor to make it there in the end,” Mattek-Sands said. “I think everyone at this point is fighting for a spot because the rankings were pretty close.”

It is testament to the American-Czech’s partnership that they have managed to secure their place in Singapore from so few appearance; injuries and scheduling conflicts have restricted them to just seven tournaments together this year. However, when they have been on court, it has not taken long to rekindle the magic.

In their first event of the year, the Miami Open, they romped to the title without dropping a set, following this up with another final in Charleston. They lost out on the silverware there to fellow Singapore qualifiers Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic and suffered further disappointment at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, falling at the first hurdle on each occasion.

With their Finals hopes hanging by a thread, a big performance was required at Flushing Meadows. And they certainly delivered, gaining revenge on Garcia and Mladenovic to add the US Open crown to the majors titles won at the Australian and French Opens the previous year. 

The current Road to Singapore leaderboard as follows (as of October 1, 2016):

Four of the Top 5 seeds will be in action on a busy Monday at the China Open. We preview the must-see matchups right here, courtesy of wtatennis.com contributor Chris Oddo.

Monday

First and Second Rounds

[1] Angelique Kerber (GER #1) vs. Katerina Siniakova (CZE #56)
Head-to-head: Kerber leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Kerber has reached the quarterfinals in three of the last four years at Beijing, but has never reached the semis.

Angelique Kerber is hoping to continue her fantastic season in Beijing with a deep run and that all starts with a first-round matchup with 20 year old Czech Katerina Siniakova. It’s been a good summer and fall for Siniakova. She has reached her first two WTA finals and is playing just a sliver shy of her career-high ranking of No.53. Last week she qualified for Wuhan and upset Timea Babos before falling to Caroline Wozniacki in the second round. But facing World No.1 Angelique Kerber in this her career year? That’s a different level of challenge for Siniakova, who has only faced two Top 10 opponents in her career to date. Kerber, meanwhile, is just focused on keeping the routine and rhythm that has made her 2016 so successful. “I’m trying to going to each tournament thinking match by match, not thinking too much what’s happen around, just playing my best, practicing good during the tournaments, have good recovery,” she said. “Yeah, just go and play good matches.”

Pick: Kerber in two

[8] Madison Keys (USA #9) vs. Kristina Mladenovic (FRA #54)
Head-to-head: Keys leads, 2-1
Key Stat: Keys won her 40th match of the season on Sunday in Beijing.

Madison Keys is looking to cash in on a golden opportunity to put some distance between herself and the rest of the pack when it comes to qualification for this year’s BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. Yaroslava Shvedova’s upset of Carla Suárez Navarro in first-round action at Beijing means that Keys can stretch her lead over the Spaniard – currently ranked No.9 on the Road to Singapore leaderboard – with each victory she earns this week. On Monday, Keys will face Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic in a rematch of last year’s first-round battle in Beijing. Keys won that one in straight sets and also defeated Mladenovic at the Olympics in Rio this year, where she won the final four points of a third set tie-break to prevail. Mladenovic, who defeated Jelena Jankovic in three sets on Sunday, has seen her ranking drop outside of the Top 50 for the first time since last spring and has dropped five of her last six against the Top 10.

Pick: Keys in three

[2] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #3) vs. Yulia Putintseva (KAZ #36)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Muguruza owns a 6-0 lifetime record at Beijing.

Defending champion Garbiñe Muguruza is looking for a late-season push to lock up her second straight WTA Finals appearance, and the 22 year old Spaniard is happy to be back in Beijing, the site of one of her biggest titles to date. “I think it’s very, very satisfying when you go to a tournament where you know you played well, you feel welcome,” she said on Saturday after defeating Irina-Camelia Begu in three sets. “But honestly, this was last year. Nobody really is thinking about who won last year. It’s all about who is going to win this year, who is winning. I’m not really thinking. I’m just going for my match, just concentrating on the next one.” The next one for Muguruza will come against Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva. The fiery 21 year old notched her first Top 10 win of the season two weeks ago in Tokyo and she’ll look to claim another big scalp when she meets Muguruza for the first time on Monday. Muguruza has lost more matches against players ranked outside of the Top 20 than any other player in the Top 5, so she’ll have to be dialed in from the get-go to book her spot in the sweet sixteen.

Pick: Muguruza in three

[3] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #4) vs. Ekaterina Makarova (RUS #37)
Head-to-head: Radwanska leads, 5-2
Key Stat: Radwanska will qualify for Singapore if Keys fails to win today.

Agnieszka Radwanska has always been a threat to win the title in Beijing, and 2016 is no exception. The Pole owns a 21-7 lifetime record at the China Open and has been to at least the semifinals in four of the last seven years. “I’m just feeling very well here,” Radwanska said after dispatching Chinese wild card Wang Qiang 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday. “I like the courts. I like the conditions. Everything suits me. So just, you know, very happy that I can really play my best tennis here.” Next up for the 2011 Beijing champion will be a meeting with Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova. Radwanska cruised past Makarova in second-round action at Wuhan last week to improve her record against the southpaw to 5-1 on hardcourts. Makarova has put up inconsistent results in 2016, but she has earned nine Top 5 wins in her career and is capable of defeating anybody when she’s at her best.

Pick: Radwanska in three

MIAMI, FL, USA – Eight-time Miami Open champion Serena Williams extended her dominant run in Key Biscayne with a win over Zarina Diyas, 7-5, 6-3.

Watch live action from Miami this fortnight on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Last time these two met, Diyas only took two games off of Williams in her 54-minute loss at Indian Wells last year. The Kazakh wasn’t keen to repeat the experience, and gave the American plenty of trouble throughout the match.

Diyas had Williams on the ropes early on, her pace and quickness around the court troubling the World No.1’s normally reliable game. But Williams hasn’t lost a match in Miami since 2012, and she wasn’t about to do it today. She punished any short serve that came her way with her powerful game and let the crowd fire her up to take the first set.

It's LIT. #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/3UfXXowo2c

— Miami Open (@MiamiOpen) March 26, 2016

With a set under her belt Williams played more freely, finding her all-court game to get ahead 4-0. But Diyas had a second wind late in the match, playing more aggressively to rattle off three straight games and erode the lead to 4-3. The eight-time Miami champion remained unbothered, though, closing out the match in just over an hour and a half.

But beyond reaching the Miami Open fourth round for a whopping fifteenth time and extending her tournament win-loss record to 75-7, the win is a major milestone in Williams’ decorated career.

Williams now owns 750 career match wins across all levels, a 750-125 lifetime record. She currently sits seventh on the all-time list for match wins, closing in on Lindsay Davenport’s record of 753 wins. Martina Navratilova holds the all-time record with 1442 wins.

WTA All-Time Match Win Leaders
Martina Navratilova – 1442
Chris Evert – 1,309
Steffi Graf – 902
Virginia Wade – 839
Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario – 759
Lindsay Davenport – 753
Serena Williams – 750

Another milestone for @SerenaWilliams! ? #WTA https://t.co/ZwWDTy9bXY

— WTA (@WTA) March 26, 2016

MIAMI, FL, USA – No.4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza needed less than an hour to defeat American wildcard Nicole Gibbs, 6-1, 6-0, to reach the fourth round of the Miami Open.

Watch live action from Miami this fortnight on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

The 2015 Wimbledon finalist, Muguruza has struggled to find consistency thus far this season – narrowly edging past Dominika Cibulkova on Friday – but the young Spaniard had none of those problems on Sunday night, hitting four aces and 20 winners – to only eight from the fast-rising Stanford All-American – and dropping just one game in the 57 minute match.

“I’m so happy about my match today; I felt great on court, so that’s amazing,” she told Andrew Krasny during her on-court interview.

“I tried to be very aggressive, but be very concentrated and just play my game.”

Clinical stuff from Muguruza combined with a slightly off Gibbs and it’s 61 to the Spaniard. #MiamiOpen

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) March 28, 2016

Muguruza first attracted notice when, as a wildcard, she burst onto the scene in 2012 when she upset then-World No.9 Vera Zvonareva, following up the upset with another big win over Flavia Pennetta en route to the fourth round. The Spaniard has since become a mainstay in the Top 10, pushing World No.1 Serena Williams through a high-octane Wimbledon final last summer and winning all three of her round robin matches at her BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global debut last fall.

“I have great memories. The Miami Open was my breakthrough and this is my second home with this amazing crowd that supports me. I don’t know what to say, it all feels great!”

Up next for Muguruza is former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka, whose hot streak continued against Magda Linette earlier in the day.

Also into the fourth round is No.26 seed Johanna Konta. The Brit became the highest ranked from her country since 1987 (Jo Durie) by cracking the Top 25 last week, and showed off all the grit and determination that has taken her so far, so fast with a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(3) win over qualifier Elena Vesnina.

“I am very happy to be able to come back tomorrow to compete again,” Konta said after winning a match in which she hit a stunning 12 aces – six in the second set alone. “I knew going into the match that she was playing at a very good level so I knew there’d be very little in it, whichever way the match at the end. I’m very happy to be sitting here with a chance to play tomorrow.”

Vesnina was coming off of a big win over former No.1 Venus Williams, and though she fought hard throughout, Konta continued to play her best tennis when it matters most over the last 10 months.

“I really tried to play the same as I had throughout the whole match. There’s obviously ebbs and flows in a match – I was playing better in parts and not so good in parts – but I really just tried to stay offensive and have things end on my terms as much as possible, but also being humble enough to know that she was playing at a good level so not to get too disheartened or down on myself if she plays well too.”

Standing between Konta and a possible quarterfinal encounter with either Muguruza or Azarenka is No.32 seed Monica Niculescu, who eased past CoCo Vandeweghe, 6-4, 6-1.

“We’ve only played once before and that was last year in Nottingham. It was a very tough match there, and I know she’s one of the trickiest players on tour and one of the best competitors as well.

“At the end I think it’ll be a match where there’ll be very little in it and I’m just going to my best to fight every single point and hopefully be able to leave the court knowing that I did my best.”

“I have great memories here, the @MiamiOpen was my breakthrough and it's my second home.” -@GarbiMuguruza https://t.co/5sqBvtEGMM

— WTA (@WTA) March 28, 2016