Naomi Osaka was a force on the red clay.

(2) Halep could be up against it with an early road of qualifier and two-time grasscourt doubles winner Marina Erakovic, then Brit Laura Robson, then Bouchard

Victoria Azarenka returns to the tour after giving birth to her son, Leo, and Sabine Lisicki also makes her 2017 debut after a shoulder injury suffered last November…

Simona Halep won a tight battle of former Grand Slam finalists.

Maria Sharapova won her first match back after a 15-month doping ban.

Interesting starts for the struggling (1) Kerber after a bye vs. the Jankovic-Barthel winner, (3) Cibulkova after a bye vs. Makarova, (10) Woz vs. the Russian riser Kasatkina, and (11) Vandeweghe vs. her U.S. Fed Cup teammate Riske…

Three Top 10ers in the field, in addition to Australian Open runner-up and former No. 1 Venus Williams

Six of the Top 10 in attendance…Lots of unseeded floaters including a former No. 1 and a Slam winner…

Five Top 10ers in the impressive field…The Top 4 seeds receive opening-round byes…Opening-round testers for (1) Raonic vs. Querrey, (5) Nadal vs. The Dog, (7) Dimitrov vs. Johnson, (8) Ferrer vs. Tomic, and (6) Pouille vs. Simon…

Nine of the Top 10 players, sans Serena Williams, in the field…Potential tough starts for (3) Radwasnka second round vs. the powerful Makarova, (13) Vinci second round vs. the resurgent Wozniacki, (5) Pliskova vs. Safarova, (15) Pavlyuchenkova vs. (Q) Riske (winner to meet Stosur), (8) Keys second round vs. the winner of Jelena Jankovic and Kristina Mladenovic, and the shaky-of-late (2) Muguruza vs. Begu…

The Top 8 seeds receive opening-round byes in Wuhan, so Kerber will start against either American CoCo Vandeweghe or France’s Kristina Mladenovic. From there her difficult path will likely see No. 14 and Slam winner Petra Kvitova, then No. 7 Carla Suarez Navarro or No. 11 Johanna Konta, then likely No. 4 Simona Halep or No. 8 Madison Keys in the semifinals.

“I think the key of the match was the first set,” said Kerber, broken three times in the first set, and breaking it down for any media members that couldn’t read the scoreline. “I think in the second set, what I did good [was] that I played the first few games really tough so that I was up 3-0 very fast. Then I could continue my good play, yeah, in the next few games.”

“It’s been a good week,” said Wozniacki, who covered the court like her days at the No. 1 ranking. “I’m really happy about the way I played. Obviously Madison is a strong player. She hits the ball really hard. But I managed to really play well, get a lot of returns in. I served well, which I was pleased with.”

“You never gave up on me and really helped me get through,” the 21-year-old Keys told the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd.

This tournament has turned into a complete mess with the seeding in chaos as Svetlana Kuznetova withdrew citing a shoulder injury, Johanna Konta pulled with a back injury, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova withdrew citing a back injury, then today (Sunday) Madison Keys injured her neck practicing and withdrew…