Home favorite Naomi Osaka held off Italy’s Jasmine Paolini for a 6-3, 7-6 (4) first-round win on Tuesday at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
The seventh-seeded Osaka, who won the WTA 500 tournament in 2019 and was runner-up in 2016 and 2018, saved seven of nine break points and struck 30 winners. Up next for the four-time Grand Slam winner is 18-year-old Mia Pohankova of Slovakia, a 6-1, 6-4 winner against Czech Tereza Valentova.
Australia’s Maya Joint defeated No. 6 Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the only other match involving a seeded player.
Also advancing to the second round were Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, Leylah Fernandez of Canada, Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, Cristina Busa of Spain and Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Guangzhou Open
No. 2 seed Janice Tjen of Indonesia needed only 58 minutes to complete a 6-2, 6-2 first-round win against Polina Kudermetova of Uzbekistan at the WTA 250 tournament in China.
Tjen won 23 of 26 points on her first serve, never faced a break point and had only four unforced errors compared to 29 for her opponent. She will meet Britain’s Harriet Dart in the second round.
No. 4 Lilli Tagger of Austria eliminated 46-year-old Venus Williams 6-2, 6-2 and No. 6 Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey outlasted Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-1, 4-6, 6-2. Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska knocked out No. 8 Katie Volynets 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (7) in 2 hours and 44 minutes.
Unseeded winners advancing to the second round included China’s Xinran Sun, American Claire Liu, Spain’s Kaitlin Quevedo, Poland’s Magda Linette and Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann.
–Field Level Media
