Tokyo Open: Daria Kasatkina battles past Marta Kostyuk into pre-quarters!

Marta Kostyuk turned out to be a tough opponent but Daria Kasatkina prevailed over the Ukrainian in the end, in their first-round encounter at the Tokyo Open. On Tuesday, the sixth seed shrugged past the loss of the opening set to clinch a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win after nearly two hours and 30 minutes of play.

Both players combined to create 26 break point chances. Of these 16 came on Kasatkina’s serve. In the first set, only break point was generated – on the seeded player’s serve and she failed to save it. In the latter two sets, Kasatkina combined to create 15 break points and saved nine. Kostyuk could only save two of the 10 break points she faced, one each in the second and third sets.

Kasatkina won 57% of her first-serve points to her opponent’s 55%. The latter scored better on second-serve points, winning 37% to Kasatkina’s 33%. The world no. 13 won nine points more than her opponent’s 99 for the match.

In the second round, the 26-year-old will take on Greece’s Despina Papamichail. The qualifier got past Japan’s Sakura Hosogi 7-6(3), 7-5. The 23-year-old Hosogi, ranked 259th in the world, replaced her compatriot, Natsumi Kawaguchi in the main draw as a lucky loser. Kawaguchi had earlier qualified for the main draw.

Tokyo Open: Misaki Doi rebuilds the hosts’ hopes

Meanwhile, former French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenko posted a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1 win over Donna Vekic in their round-of-32 meeting. Pavlyuchenkova needed an hour and 14 minutes to get the win.

Pavlyuchenkova will play Linda Noskova next. The Czech got the win over Himeno Sakatsume, 6-2, 7-5 after 85 minutes of play.

The other seed who won her first-round clash was the eighth-seeded Veronika Kudermetova. Kudermetova beat Harriet Dart 6-3, 7-6(4). Their match fell short of two hours by just 10 minutes.

The lone home favourite who made her way into the second round of the Tokyo Open on Tuesday was Misaki Doi. Doi claimed a 7-5, 6-2 win over Croatian Petra Martic after almost 90 minutes of play. Lastly, Ekaterina Alexandrova pocketed a 6-7(7), 6-1, 7-5 win over Anhelina Kalinina.