She would have got in Tianjin direct as she was ranked higher than Katie who ended up getting into the main draw, so from that perspective she may have been better off going that route. However, if she's losing to journeywomen like Lu then you have to question if it would have made much difference as I'm sure Lu would have been the lowest ranked entry in Tianjin, bar one Chinese WC. The WCs in HK (as you'd expect) were far lower ranked as well, so a massive opportunity missed here by Watson.