Mirra Andreeva vs Lin Zhu Tips, Prediction & Live Stream - Andreeva targets Ningbo quarter-finals

Andreeva is hoping to go one step further than last year in Ningbo, where she finished runner-up to Daria Kasatkina. The 18-year-old put together an outstanding start to the season, but her form has tailed off over the last few months, so she will be hoping to recapture some of her best tennis before the WTA Finals, where she will be competing for the first time.

Andreeva should be confident of reaching the quarter-finals in Ningbo. The Russian faced Zhu a couple of weeks ago in Beijing and came away with an easy straight sets victory. Zhu is much better than her ranking of 219 suggests (career-high No. 31), but it's taken her a while to get back into the swing of things since a serious elbow injury. When Andreeva wins, she usually does it clinically, so backing the teenager to prevail with Under 18.5 total games.

As mentioned, Andreeva leads 1-0, cruising to a 6-2 6-2 victory over Zhu in Beijing two weeks ago.

Andreeva comes into this contest with a 40-15 record on the season and at No. 6 in the world, securing her qualification into the WTA Finals for the first time.

However, most of Andreeva's good work came near the start of the season - namely capturing back-to-back WTA 1000 titles in Dubai and Indian Wells.

The 19-year-old made quarter-finals in Rome, Madrid, Roland Garros and Wimbledon, but hasn't advanced to the last eight in her last four tournaments in Montreal, the US Open, Beijing and Wuhan.

After going down to Sonay Kartal in the Beijing R16, Andreeva suffered an opening round exit in Wuhan in three sets to Laura Siegemund.

Zhu heads into this encounter with a 19-15 record at all levels in 2015 as she continues her comeback from a six-month elbow injury layoff.

A former top 35 player, Zhu returned to the tour in February and has predominately featured on the ITF circuit as she attempts to rebuild her ranking.

It's been a slow grind, with Zhu still languishing outside the top 200, but the Chinese player had a promising result not long ago in Montreal, where she made a nice run to the R16, beating Ekaterina Alexandrova along the way.

Zhu went down in the second round of Beijing and first round of Wuhan, but registered one of her best wins of the year in her Ningbo opener, toppling former US Open champion Emma Raducanu in three sets.