Halep, Wozniacki Lead Loaded Wuhan Field; Kerber v Keys, Svitolina v Sabalenka Tues.

The Top 7 players in the world will be in action tonight at the final Premier 5 event on the WTA calendar in Wuhan.

As the 2018 season winds down with just a month to go, World No. 1 Simon Halep bids to put further distance this week on No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki.

Halep meets Dominika Cibulkova. Cibulkova leads 4-2 over the Romanian. Wozniacki opens against Rebecca Peterson.

“I feel good,” Wozniacki said. “It’s the end of the season. I think everyone is kind of tired. I’m excited that it’s nearing the end, that we can hopefully finish it off strong, then go on vacation after that.”

Angelique Kerber collides with Madison Keys, Caroline Garcia opens her title defense against Katerina Siniakova.

“I have some great memories from last year, but it doesn’t really feel like 12 months ago,” Garcia said. “Everything goes so fast in one way. In another way, I felt I had a lot of experience this year, not always positive, but it was a lot of experience I’ve played and lived on court.

“I had a very warm welcome when I got at the airport and at the hotel. It was definitely nice to come back as a defending champion.”

Former champion Petra Kvitova takes on Aleksandra Krunic and Elina Svitolina faces Aryna Sabalenka. Kvitova is already downplaying her expectations.

“I’m pretty tired already,” Kvitova said of the season. “I was sick after US Open, so I lied in the bed. I couldn’t really practice a lot. Coming here, I mean, the conditions here are pretty nice. We have everything what we need. Yeah, it’s always kind of tough to be ready physically, mentally for these events.

“But still a few events until the season finish. Last energy what we have, I just put it in.”

Tokyo champion Karolina Pliskova returns to play Wang Qiang.

Sloane Stephens already lost (to Anett Kontaveit) with Venus Williams and US Open champion and Tokyo finalist Naomi Osaka withdrawing. Serena Williams is also not playing.

WUHAN TUESDAY SCHEDULE
CENTER COURT 11am
Rebecca PETERSON (SWE) v Caroline WOZNIACKI (DEN) [2]
Angelique KERBER (GER) [3] v Madison KEYS (USA)
Aleksandra KRUNIC (SRB) v Petra KVITOVA (CZE) [5]
Karolina PLISKOVA (CZE) [8] v Qiang WANG (CHN) or Maria SAKKARI (GRE)

Not before 7.30pm
Katerina SINIAKOVA (CZE) v Caroline GARCIA (FRA) [4]
Simona HALEP (ROU) [1] v Dominika CIBULKOVA (SVK)