China’s No. 1 seed Zhang Shuai defeated home favourite Nao Hibino to reach the quarterfinals of the Japan Women’s Open.
Hibino — the last remaining Japanese player after recording a shock win over Eugenie Bouchard in round one — raced into a 4-1 lead, dropping just eight points in the first five games.
But Zhang upped her aggression and turned the momentum around, staying strong in the clutch moments to edge the first set 6-4.
A tight second set in Hiroshima saw the players exchange breaks early on before battling towards a tie-break, in which Zhang was the stronger.
The break point record of both players told the story of the match with Hibino converting just three of her 10 opportunities compared to Zhang’s ruthless four out of five.
She took advantage of an untimely double fault from Hibino to take the tie-break and the match 6-4, 7-6 (4).
Zhang will next play Zarina Diyas, the No. 6 seed from Kazakhstan, who came through a marathon two-and-a-half hours to beat Ukraine’s Kateryna Kozlova 6-7 (3), 6-2, 7-5.
Elsewhere, Chinese No. 2 seed Su-Wei Hsieh raced into the quarterfinals with a comprehensive victory over Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella.
Despite a late surge from Minella in the second, Hsieh saved four break points in her final service game and came through to win 6-3, 6-2.
Another Chinese player, No. 4 seed Qiang Wang, is also through to the quarterfinals after a 7-5, 6-3 victory against Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand.
In the remaining matches, Polish No. 8 seed Magda Linette beat Tamara Zidansek of Slovakia 6-3, 7-6 (3) and another Slovakian player, Anna Schmiedlova, defeated Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.