Belgium’s Elise Mertens, the No 3 seed at the WTA 250 Kinoshita Group Japan Open in Osaka, levelled her head-to-head with Spain’s Cristina Bucsa with a straight-sets win, while seeds Leylah Fernandez, Marie Bouzkova and Olga Danilovic also advanced to round 2 on Tuesday.
Mertens avenged a loss at the US Open to Bucsa with a 7-6(5 6-3 win after an hour and 42 minutes, and advances to meet Tereza Valentova, an 18-year old qualifier from Czechia, who topped another young talent, 20-year old Alexandra Eala from the Philippines, 6-1 6-2, in 87 minutes.
Also safely into round 2 is Canadian 4th seed, Leylah Fernandez, who out-duelled America’s Hailey Baptiste, 6-2 7-5, and next will take on Hungarian qualifier Dalma Galfi, a 6-4 6-4 winner over another American, Alycia Parks.
Another Czech, Marie Bouzkova cruised past Ena Shibahara from Japan, 6-1 6-1, the No 5 seed needing just 61 minutes to advance.
They were playing their first singles match since the 2014 US Open juniors, where Bouzkova also conceded just 2 games to Shibahara in the 1st-round en route to the title.
Bouzkova next will meet Viktorija Golubic, who battled past Bianca Andreescu, 6-3 4-6 6-4, after 2 hours and 27 minutes.
The Suzhou WTA 125 champion from Switzerland extended her winning streak to 6 matches with her defeat of the 2019 US Open champion from Canada, improving to 2-1 overall against Andreescu, with all 3 of their meetings going to 3 sets.
Spain’s No 8 seed Jessica Bouzas Maneiro defeated American qualifier Katie Volynets, 6-2 6-4, and takes on Romanian Jacqueline Cristian in round 2, who was a 6-2 7-6(4) winner over Italian qualifier Elisabetta Cocciarretto.
American Ann Li also advanced, with a 6-4 6-0 win over French qualifier Varvara Gracheva, and will meet Rebecca Sramkova from Slovakia, who defeated qualifier Joanna Garland from Taipei, 6-3 6-2.
Back in action on Day 3 are top seed Naomi Osaka of Japan, and Britain’s Katie Boulter, amongst others.
AloJapan.com