Elena Baltacha has defeated Misaki Doi (JPN) 7-6(4) 3-6 6-1 on her return from injury in the opening round of the $75k event in Toyota, Japan.
The British No.2, who is currently ranked world No.89, is competing in her last tournament of the season in Japan and will be hoping to put her recent injury problems behind her as she goes on to face So-Jung Kim (KOR) in the second round.
Having not featured at an event since her semi-final finish at the $50k event in St Raphael, France last month, Baltacha was thrilled to get back on court and make it through to the second round.
“I’m really pleased to have come through today. I’ve had to sacrifice a couple of tennis sessions this week because of niggles here and there so it was tough out there” said Baltacha afterwards.
“Today was really important just to come through a match like that because I haven’t had that much competitive tennis and I haven’t practiced as much as I’d like.”
In the $25k event in Kalgoorlie (AUS), Jocelyn Rae has progressed to the second round after a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of wildcard entrant Alison Bai (AUS).
Rae will now face No.4 seed Jessica Moore (AUS) in the next round whilst fellow Britons Emily Webley-Smith and Danielle Brown will be hoping to join Rae as they meet each other in the first round.
Webley-Smith has won her opening round match in the doubles as she teamed up with Ling Zhang (HKG) to see off the Australian pairing of Bojana Bobusic and Alenka Hubacek 6-4 4-6 [10-7].
Meanwhile on the men’s tour, Jamie Baker has reached the second round of the $35k event in Puebla (MEX) after a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Ryan Harrison (USA).
Baker’s win comes after he reached British No.5 this week and now occupies No.315 in the world rankings.
In the doubles event in Mexico, Jamie Delgado and his partner John Paul Fruttero (USA) defeated the Spanish pairing of Adrian Menendez-Maceiras and Carlos Poch-Gradin.
After reaching the semi-finals of the $50k ATP Challenger in Champaign last week, the tournament No.3 seeds will be hoping to continue their recent good form throughout the week.
Alexander Slabinsky is through to the last 16 of the $10k event in Santo Domingo (DOM) after recovering from a set down to defeat Tim Van Terheijden (NED) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.
It has been a successful tournament in the Dominican Republic so far for the Briton who has reached the quarter-finals of the doubles event with his partner Vladimir Oberadovic (SRB). The No.1 seeds won 6-4 3-6 [10-8] against the Moldovan pair of Radu Albot and Andrei Ciumac and now meet home crowd favourites Jesus Francisco Felix and Amaury Gomez.
Elsewhere on the men’s tour, David Rice has won his opening match at the $10k event in Kuala Lumpur (MAS) after defeating Vaja Uzakov (UZB). The tournament No.7 seed won 6-4, 6-4 to set up a second round clash with fellow Briton Sean Thornley, who beat a player ranked 159 places above him in the rankings.
Thornley won 6-3, 6-3 against Dzmitry Zhyrmont (BLR) to set up the clash with his doubles partner Rice, after the pair lost narrowly 2-6, 6-3, [10-4] to Jared Easton (AUS) and Jaan-Frederik Brunken (GER) in the doubles event.
Alex Bogdanovic has lost 6-7(0) 4-6 to Stephane Bohli (SUI) in the first round of the €106.5k ATP Challenger in Helsinki (FIN) whilst Ross Hutchins and his partner Horia Tecau went down 6-7(11) 3-6 to the home nation pairing of Henri Kontinen and Jarkko Nieminen.
Dan Evans will be hoping to progress in the competition as he takes on No.3 seed Bjorn Phau (GER) in his first round match in Finland.
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