No. 7 seed Naomi Osaka of Japan kicked off her 2025 season by beating Israeli qualifier Lina Glushko 6-4, 6-4 in an hour and 25 minutes in the first round of the ASB Classic on Monday in Auckland, New Zealand.
Osaka hit seven aces with four double faults and converted 3 of 7 break-point opportunities. Her next opponent will be Austria’s Julia Grabher, who rallied to beat Spaniard Leyre Romero Gormaz 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7) with one match point saved in the third-set tiebreaker.
Rebecca Marino of Canada upended No. 4 seed and home favorite Lulu Sun 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. No. 5 seed Clara Tauson of Denmark cruised past Italy’s Lucrezia Stefanini 6-2, 6-3, and American eighth seed Katie Volynets outlasted Erika Andreeva of Russia 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-2.
Other first-round winners included Nao Hibino of Japan and Americans Ann Li and Bernarda Pera.
Brisbane International
Ons Jabeur of Tunisia battled through a first-set tiebreaker before taking down China’s Saisai Zheng 7-6 (5), 6-4 in opening-round action in Australia.
The former World No. 2 and three-time Grand Slam finalist opened her season by hitting six aces and going 3-for-5 in both saving break points and breaking her opponent’s serve. Her next opponent will be No. 14 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia, who had a first-round bye.
Anastasia Potapova of Russia had a 2-0 third-set lead when opponent Ana Bogdan of Romania retired. Similarly, Ukraine’s Anehlina Kalinina was up 6-4, 2-0 when Chinese opponent Yafan Wang retired. Other winners included China’s Yue Yuan, Romania’s Anca Todoni, Russia’s Polina Kudermetova, Australian Kimberly Birrell and American Peyton Stearns.
–Field Level Media
