Osaka survives Tokyo first round as Venus Williams loses in Guangzhou
Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka reached the second round of the WTA 500 tennis tournament in Tokyo, while 46-year-old Venus Williams lost her opening match at a WTA 250 event in China.
First-round results are in from two women's professional tennis tournaments on the WTA Tour, in Tokyo and in China. In the WTA 500 event in Tokyo, seventh seed Osaka advanced to the second round. In Guangzhou, China, at the WTA 250 "Guangzhou Open", 46-year-old American Venus Williams went out in her first match.
Tokyo
Osaka, who won this tournament in 2019 and was runner-up in 2016 and 2018, saved seven of the nine break points she faced and hit 30 winners. The four-time Grand Slam champion will next play 18-year-old Mia Pohankova of Slovakia, who beat Czech player Tereza Valentova 6-1, 6-4.
In the only other match involving a seeded player, Australia's Maya Joint defeated sixth seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Guangzhou
Second seed Janice Tjen of Indonesia beat Uzbekistan's Polina Kudermetova 6-2, 6-2 in just 58 minutes. She won 23 of 26 points on her first serve, did not allow a single break point and made only four unforced errors, compared with 29 for her opponent. In the second round she will meet Britain's Harriet Dart.
Fourth seed Lilli Tagger of Austria beat Venus Williams 6-2, 6-2. Sixth seed Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey defeated Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 in three sets. Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska needed 2 hours and 44 minutes to knock out eighth seed Katie Volynets 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (7).
Unseeded players who also reached the second round include China's Sun Xinran, American Clare Liu, Spain's Kaitlin Quevedo, Poland's Magda Linette and Switzerland's Jil Teichmann.
