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Can Simona Halep get her 2016 campaign off to a strong start with a win over Caroline Garcia? Join The Roar for live scores from around 6pm (AEDT), following the completion of Inigo Cervantes versus James Duckworth.
Halep is yet to take the court in 2016 after she withdrew from the Brisbane International last week with a leg injury.
The Romanian last played at the WTA Championships at the end of 2015, in which she won against world number eight Italian Flavia Pennetta in straight sets 6-0, 6-3, before losing to eventual champion Agnieszka Radwanska and semi-finalist Maria Sharapova.
The world number two is the tournament’s first seed, and has won only six of her last ten matches, although she struggled to go deep into tournaments last year, having bowed out of the US Open in the semi-final stage.
Garcia’s 2016 started with a successful Hopman Cup, which saw her win all three of her singles games before France were knocked out.
The world number 34’s first win came over world number 53 Heather Watson, representing Great Britain, who went down 3-6, 7-5, 3-6.
Garcia continued to stun with straight sets wins over world number 32 German Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 7-6 and eventual champion and world number 36 Daria Gavrilova 6-4, 7-6.
Caroline kicked off her Sydney International with a win over Kristina Mladenovic 7-6, 6-4 and is shaping as a real threat to Halep.
Garcia has won eight of her last ten matches, after a successful tournament win at Limoges in the back end of 2015.
Halep and Garcia have never met on the WTA Tour.
The winner will take on either Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or fifth seed Karolina Pliskova.
Prediction
Garcia will take the first set, but ultimately go down – albeit swinging all the way.
Halep in three sets.
Join The Roar for live scores from around 6pm (AEDT), following the completion of Cervantes and Duckworth, and comment below if you’re watching the match.
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