WTA UPDATE

September 26, 2018

The WTA Premier tournament, the Pan Pacific Open was completed in Tokyo on September 23, 2018.  It was Naomi Osaka’s first tournament since becoming the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles title, when she beat Serena Williams at the US Open in August.

Naomi Osaka was the third seed at the tournament, behind Caroline Wozniacki and Caroline Garcia.  Osaka had straight sets wins over Dominika Cibulkova, Barbora Strycova, and Camila Giorgi to advance to the final.

Caroline Wozniacki lost to Camila Giorgi in three sets in the second round; while Caroline Garcia fell to unseeded Donna Vekic of Croatia in straight sets in the third round.  Vekic proved a tough opponent for fourth seed Karolina Pliskova in the semi-finals, but the experienced Czech won in three sets.

Karolina Pliskova went on to win a hard fought final against Naomi Osaka 6-4, 6-4.

The tour has now moved on to China for the Wuhan Open, where Simona Halep is the top seed, ahead of Caroline Wozniacki, Angelique Kerber, and Caroline Garcia.  The tournament has already produced a number of upsets, with Simona Halep going down to Dominika Cibulkova; and Caroline Garcia bowing out after losing to unseeded Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.

Australian Ashleigh Barty is the first to qualify for the quarter-finals, after defeating Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-1.  Barty had previously defeated highly rated Johanna Konta, and local favourite Zheng Sai-Sai.  Barty will player the winner of the match between fifth seed Petra Kvitova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.  Another Australian, Daria Gavrilova remains in the competition.  She will face local wild card entrant Wang Qiang in the third round.