Hercog is in the form of her life
Both players are in fine form so it should be a great match, Pavlyuchenkova is in the form of her life, ranked 28 and two weeks ago she beat Daniela Hantuchova on the way to the Dubai Open semi-finals.
In the first round she destroyed Georgian qualifier Anna Tatishvili 6-1, 6-2.
Polona Hercog comes into the match equally high on confidence. The 19 year old from Slovenia won a strong challenger event in Columbia in February and last week she stormed through to the Acapulco final before falling to Venus Williams in three sets.
As a result she has catapulted herself up to 53 in the rankings and with the clay-court season looming in the not too distant future, she could be challenging for a slam seeding position by the French Open.