Teen star Naomi Osaka races into second round of Japan Open
Wednesday 14 September 2016 14:55, UK
Teenager Naomi Osaka gave the home fans plenty to celebrate, as she eased into the second round of the Japan Open for the loss of just two games.
The 18-year-old, world No 69, needed less than an hour to thrash Estonia's Anett Kontaveit 6-0 6-2.
Hitting winners from all angles, Osaka took the first eight games of the match, before Kontaveit finally held serve.
The opening set lasted just 22 minutes and Osaka admitted she learnt a lot from her US Open defeat at the hands of Madison Keys earlier this month.
The resident of Fort Lauderdale, who has a Japanese mother and Haitian father, said: "When I lost against Keys, I didn't really have a chance to dictate.
"In that match, she was hitting the ball so hard. But today I really wanted to make sure I was aggressive and force the pace."
And Wednesday was another bad day for the leading seeds, with No 4 Johanna Larsson losing 6-2 3-6 6-4 to American Varvara Lepchenko.
The Swede became the third of the top four seeds to depart the Tokyo event, leaving Yulia Putintseva as the highest ranked player left in the tournament.
The No 3 seed and world No 41 from Kazakhstan beat Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-4 6-3.
