Hontama, Yamaguchi and Saito show early form on opening day of 28th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge
Top seed Mai Hontama led a trio of Japanese into the next round of qualifying on the opening day of the 28th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge being played at the Habtoor Grand Resort, on Sunday.
Mei Yamaguchi and Sara Saito were in a tearing hurry accounting for their opponents in quick time earlier in the day, while the top-seeded Hontama eased her way past Spain’s Georgina Garcia-Perez 6-3, 6-2 later in the evening.
Yamaguchi, with a career-high singles ranking of 242 on the WTA earlier this year, was at her near-best form winning 6-2, 6-0 against Alena Fomina-Klotz of Germany, in just 53 minutes. The depth of her strokes sort of got her German opponent off-guard as Yamaguchi advanced to a meeting against Varvara Panshina, who had to dig in deep before winning 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 against seventh seed Kira Pavlova.
At 19 years, Saito also showed a lot of maturity while easing past Great Britain’s Emily Webley-Smith 6-1, 6-0 in just 49 minutes of action on Court No. 3. Saito, who was unsuccessful at last week’s Australian Open wild card playoff in Melbourne, showed much better adaptation to the fast court surface conditions, to win in quick time.
The Japanese teenager will now meet Ekaterina Ovcharenko after the Russian took a little over two hours to win 2-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 against countrywoman Ekaterina Maklakova.
“I want to take things one step at a time,” Yamaguchi said.
“Tomorrow is another day and I hope I can continue with my rhythm and qualify for the main draw of this competition,” she added.
(Round One of qualifying for the 28th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge being played at the Habtoor Grand Resort, on Sunday): Mai Hontama bt Georgina Garcia-Perez 6-3, 6-2; Ekaterina Ovcharenko bt Ekaterina Maklakova 2-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2; Mei Yamaguchi bt Alena Fomina-Klotz 6-2, 6-0; Sara Saito bt Emily Webley-Smith 6-1, 6-0 – 49 mins; Varvara Panshina bt Kira Pavlova 1-6, 7-5, 6-1; Tereza Martincova 6-4, 6-1 bt Kajsa Rinaldo Persson; Dalila Jakupovic bt Zeel Desai 6-2, 6-3; Emily Appleton bt Rada Zolotareva 6-2, 6-0; Valentina Ryser v Eszter Dorka Finak 6-3, 6-2; Katarina Zavatska bt Ksenia Zaytseva 6-3, 6-4; Caroline Werner bt Lina Glushko 6-2, 6-1; Erika Andreeva bt Iva Primorac Pavicic 6-2, 6-4; Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty bt Ekaterina Yashina 6-1, 0-6, 7-5.