Eight-time champion Serena Williams will open accounts at the Miami Open on Thursday, as the seeds on the top half of the draw play their first matches of the week. Here’s a preview of what to watch.

Thursday, Second Round

[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Christina McHale (USA #56)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Williams owns a 64-5 record at Miami.
Though she’s been in dazzling form in 2016, Serena Williams has yet to hold a trophy aloft this season. After dropping finals at the Australian Open (Kerber) and Indian Wells (Azarenka) Williams has now lost back-to-back finals for the first time since 2004. Will a return to the scene of so many breathtaking triumphs provide Williams with the inspiration to claim her fourth consecutive title (ninth overall) at Crandon Park? Williams will open against compatriot and Fed Cup teammate Christina McHale in second-round action on Thursday. The 23-year-old New Jersey native knocked off Japan’s Misaki Doi in first-round action on Wednesday.

Pick: Williams in two

[3] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #2) vs. Alizé Cornet (FRA #42)
Head-to-head: Radwanska leads, 6-1
Key Stat: Radwanska is one of five former champions in the Miami draw, along with Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Venus Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Off the tour with a back injury for nearly two months, Alizé Cornet won her first tour-level match since the Australian Open on Wednesday when she defeated Galina Voskoboeva in straight sets. Before her injury, Cornet was making big strides against the WTA’s elite, and she’ll be tasked with picking up where she left off on Thursday. Though she enters Miami with a 9-38 lifetime record against the Top 10, Cornet has won seven of her last 13, and also owns four Top 2 victories. But the match-up could prove too difficult for the talented Frenchwoman on Thursday when she faces 2012 champion and current World No. 2 Agnieszka Radwanska. The Pole has been in scintillating form all season. She leads the WTA in wins with 17 and has reached at least the semifinal of all four events she has played in 2016.

Pick: Radwanska in two

[5] Simona Halep (ROU #5) vs. Daria Kasatkina (RUS #36)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Kasatkina is playing with a Top 40 ranking for the first time.
One of the more heavily anticipated match-ups of the second round pits fifth-seeded Simona Halep against rising Russian Daria Kasatkina. Both players are coming off quarterfinal appearances at Indian Wells, and though Halep will come in as the heavy favorite, all eyes will be on 18-year-old Kasatkina for two reasons: one, to see how the Russian will handle the challenge of backing up her breakout performance at Indian Wells, and two, to discover how Kasatkina matches up against one of the elite forces of the game in Halep. The Romanian was in good form at Indian Wells before falling to Serena Williams in the quarterfinals, and she has told reporters that she is feeling 100 percent healthy for the first time all season. Will her improving health mean another bump up in form for the Romanian?

Pick: Halep in two

[12] Elina Svitolina (UKR #16) vs. Zhang Shuai (CHN #68)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Zhang has already doubled her 2015 tour-level win total in 2016.
It’s been an incredible, emotional year for China’s Zhang Shuai, and the season isn’t even three months old. After qualifying for the Australian Open in January, Zhang went on a magical run to the quarterfinals, snapping her 0-for-14 streak at the majors by upsetting Halep in the first round. Zhang took a wild card into Indian Wells after winning a Challenger title in February and upset Caroline Wozniacki in the WTA’s longest match of the season (3:24) before falling to eventual champion Victoria Azarenka in the third round. China’s No.2 player will face a tough second-round test in No.12 seed Elina Svitolina on Thursday in Miami. The Ukrainian No.1, who recently hired seven-time major champion Justine Henin as a special consultant to her team, is seeking to reach the third round for the third consecutive year in Miami with a win.

Pick: Svitolina in three

[19] Timea Bacsinszky (SUI #20) vs. Margarita Gasparyan (RUS #41)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Gasparyan is making her main draw debut in Miami.
One of the bigger breakout performers of 2015 is in the process of rebuilding her game – and health – in 2016. Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky had to spend seven weeks without picking up a racquet this off-season after suffering a knee injury in her last event of the season in Luxembourg. Cheated out of a crucial training block during the winter, the 26-year-old has elected to build her fitness while playing events this season. The results have been mixed, but after a big win over Eugenie Bouchard last week at Indian Wells it appears that the Swiss is rounding into form. But she’ll be tested early in Miami when she faces Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan. The 21-year-old reached the second week at the Australian Open this winter, and has already notched eight wins on the season. She comes into Miami carrying a career-best ranking of No.41.

Pick: Bacsinszky in three

-Chris Oddo, wtatennis.com contributor