American third seed Madison Brengle has eased her way into the second round of the Japan’s women’s Open with a straight sets victory over Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam. The world number 42 required 61 minutes to beat Friedsam 6-3, 6-1 as she dropped her serve once.
Brengle is yet to win a WTA title in her career, but does come into the tournament with good form following her run at the US Open. The 25-year-old defeated Saisai Zheng and Anna Tatishvili to reach the third round where she lost to Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit. Her run to the third round was her best performance at the tournament in her career.
Brengle wasn’t the only successful American on the first day of the tournament. 7th seed Christina Mchale edged her way past Yulia Putintseva. In the world rankings, there are only 15 places separating the two women (McHale at 60th and Putintseva at 75th) and parts of their first round match was just as close. After taking the first set, Mchale was two points away from dropping the second set before fighting back to break the Kazakh player as she took the match 6-3,7-5, after an hour and 47 minutes.
Ajla Tomljanovic survived a marathon encounter against Timea Babos to move into the last sixteen. The 7th seed recovered from a set down to win 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2). In the final set Tomjanovic was broken twice before clawing her way back into the match. In the second round she will play 44-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm, who comfortably eased her way past fellow countrywoman Misaki Doi in straight sets (6-4,6-2). Date-Krumm is currently ranked 144th in the world, but her highest ranking has been 4th which was 20 years ago in 1995.
