JAPANESE teenager Sara Saito had a WTA Tour debut to remember, picking up an upset win over Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in Osaka overnight. The junior girls world number two earned a wildcard into the WTA 250 event and played her first main draw match against the 22-year-old world number 62, coming away with the 6-3 6-2 victory.

Saito is currently ranked 179th in the world on the senior Tour, and only turned 18 a fortnight ago, but is among a host of rising Japanese players to keep an eye on. Earning a place on Court 1, Saito needed just 74 minutes to down Bouzas Maneiro, who reached a career-high 57th in the world last month.

With the home crowd in Osaka willing her on, Saito won 71 per cent of her first serve points and was able to save all three break points against her to get out of trouble on numerous occasions. In turn, she broke Bouzas Maneiro three times herself from four chances.

The teenager was the bright spark on an otherwise dull day for the home nation as fellow wildcard Mai Hontama suffered a 61-minute shellacking at the hands of Belgian Elise Mertens, while Moyuka Uchijima fought hard but ultimately went down to Czech Marie Bouzkova in three sets, 7-6 2-6 6-3.

Saito will take on hard-hitting Armenian Elina Avanesyan after the former Russian representative knocked out reigning champion Ashlyn Krueger in a tight straight sets match, 7-6 6-3. Also joining them in the second round was Australian qualifier Kimberly Birrell who took out Saisai Zheng in a rather meek 6-2 6-3 result, as well as Romanian qualifier Ana Bogdan, Brit Harriet Dart and Frenchwoman Diane Parry, the latter two needing to come from a set down to win.

Ningbo Open | Ningbo, China – WTA 500

Russian seventh seed Anna Kalinskaya overcame an early deficit to knock off Australian lucky loser Priscilla Hon on Centre Court, winning 3-6 6-3 6-4 to reach the Round of 16. The contest was the sole three-set encounter of the day, with the next closest match being Czech Katerina Siniakova‘s 6-2 6-4 victory over Pole, Magda Linette.

In other results, British hope Katie Boulter easily won against Italian qualifier Sara Errani 6-3 6-2, while German Ella Seidel won the battle of the lucky losers against Lichtenstein’s Kathinka Von Deichmann, 6-3 6-1. Chinese lucky loser Ye-Xin Ma was the other winner, taking care of compatriot and qualifier Xiaodi You 6-2 6-2, making the most of replacing Ekaterina Alexandrova in the main draw.

Nordic Open | Stockholm, Sweden – ATP 250

In-form British talent Jacob Fearnley continued his wonderful form by stepping up at Stockholm to post a 6-2 7-6 victory over Frenchman Corentin Moutet. Fearnley has been dominating at Challenger level in 2024, and got his chance in a maindraw at the Nordic Open after working his way through qualifying. Unfortunately his countryman Cameron Norrie bowed out to Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, 6-4 6-4.

In other results, Chilean Nicolas Jarry overcame local hope and wildcard Elias Ymer in three sets 2-6 6-4 7-6, while Laslo Djere and Alexandre Muller also stamped their second round tickets. Muller was too strong for Swedish wildcard Leo Borg, the son of champion Bjorn.

European Open | Antwerp, Belgium – ATP 250

Zizou Bergs got the chocolates in front of home fans with a hard-fought 7-5 6-4 victory over Argentinian Facundo Diaz Acosta on Centre Court, with the Belgian winning 79 per cent of his first serve points and producing seven aces in the win. Unfortunately the only other local hope on court in Alexander Blockx went down to Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech.

Czech Jiri Lehecka also advanced to the Round of 16 with Marcos Giron, Roberto Bautista Agut, Marcos Giron and Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild all getting up in their respective contests.

Almaty Open | Almaty, Kazakhstan – ATP 250

An all-Kazakh battle took centre stage on Center Court with the higher ranked Alexander Shevchenko coming away with the two tiebreaker sets win over veteran and qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin. Former Australian Open semi-finalist Aslan Karatsev upset in-form Chinese talent Zhizhen Zhang 6-4 7-6 to reach the next stage after successfully qualifying.

In other results, Frenchman Adrian Mannarino and Brit Daniel Evans wound back the clock with first-up wins, while Finnish talent Otto Virtanen, Canadian Gabriel Diallo and Kazakhstan wildcard Beibit Zhukayev were the other victors on day two.