Australia's Priscilla Hon has made an impressive start at the Hong Kong Open, posting a straight-sets win over local hope Eudice Chong.
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Hon, ranked No.215 in the world, was made to work hard by Chong in their first-round match before notching a 7-5 7-5 victory on Tuesday to book a second round tie with Anna Blinkova.
It capped off a good day for Australia, with Daria Saville earlier making it through qualifying to reach the main draw, coming from a set down to beat Dalila Jakupovic 4-6 7-5 6-3.
Saville only resumed playing in June after nine months out recovering from a torn ACL, and the one-time top-20 star was beaten in the second round of last week's China Open in Beijing.
The 29-year-old had her serve broken once in dropping the opening set on Tuesday. Her Slovenian opponent staved off four break point opportunities of her own, but was broken when serving to take the second set into a tiebreaker.
Saville, the current world No.211, held her nerve to force a decider.
Both players lost serve early in the final set, before Saville broke again for 5-3 and completed the job in two hours and 18 minutes. She now plays third-seeded Elise Mertens, doubles partner of Hunter Storm.
Also in Hong Kong top seed Victoria Azarenka retired when a set-apiece with Canada's Leylah Fernandez.
Meanwhile, in Seoul, Australian Kimberly Birrell won her opening-round match at the Korea Open, another WTA 250 event, defeating American Sachia Vickery in straight sets.
Birrell, the world No.102, took the opener, in which both players struggled on serve, 6-4. She converted three of eight break points, while having her own serve broken twice.
In the second set, the 25-year-old Aussie broke in the ninth game, before also wrapping it up 6-4, claiming the contest in 92 minutes.
Birrell was expected to face former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the second round.
However, the second-seeded Latvian was dumped out in the first round by local wildcard Back Da-yeon 3-6 6-1 7-6 (7-4).
In her third tour-level tournament appearance, all of which have been at the Korea Open, the South Korean player had never advanced past the first round.
Fifth-seeded American Sofia Kenin was also beaten by a home favourite, with 162nd-ranked Jang Su-jeong winning 6-1 6-4.
Top seed Jessica Pegula began her campaign with a 6-2 6-4 triumph over Slovak Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
In the Zhengzhou WTA 500 39-year-old Vera Zvonareva knocked out No.9 seed Veronika Kudermetova 6-2 7-6 (7-5) in just under two hours.
It was former World No.2 Zvonareva's first top 20 win in more than two years, though she was sidelined for 11 months in that period due to injury.
Australian Associated Press
