18 year old rising Swiss star Belinda Bencic only needed 43 minutes to book her place in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo with a devastating 6-0, 6-0 win against Chinese qualifier Xu Yi-Fan.
185 places separate both players in the WTA rankings and it showed as Bencic fired 21 winners past her adversary and only racked up 4 unforced errors. Next up for the Swiss youngster is Sam Stosur, who defeated Alison Riske 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. A rather relieved Stosur said after the match, “I always love to come to Japan, it’s one of my favourite countries to come to, so I’m really happy to be back this year. Hopefully I can play some more good tennis, eat more good food and have some fun”.
Other standout results in today’s opening round included a first win for Carla Suarez since Birmingham back in June. The Spaniard had put together six consecutive first round defeats until sealing a win against Kateryna Bondarenko earlier today in Japan. Angelique Kerber also made light work of Daria Gavrilova and Konjuh, Brengle, Nara and Cibulkova all safely advanced to the second round.
