The Asian hard court swing delivered its share of action on Monday as both the WTA 250 Japan Open in Osaka and the WTA 500 Ningbo Open kicked off their main draws. While Naomi Osaka cruised to victory on home soil, the day belonged to Katie Boulter, who stunned second seed Linda Noskova in straight sets. Over in China, Mccartney Kessler produced one of the most dominant performances of the day, and seeded players Belinda Bencic and Diana Shnaider navigated tricky opening assignments.
Boulter's breakthrough win
Katie Boulter performed the biggest upset of the day, defeating Beijing finalist Linda Noskova 7-6(3), 6-3 in an hour and 36 minutes. The Brit approached this match from the position of underdog after miserable performance showed in recent months which dragged her down into 59th place in WTA Rankings and detronizing from a position of best ranked player from UK, sliding behind Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal. Boulter came into Osaka having won just three wins in last ten matches played, including a first-round exit at the US Open in August. Linda Noskova was on the opposite direction, making into final of WTA 1000 in Beijing a week ago, celebrating first career's advance into top 20 of the rankings and hoping to get first title of the season as second seed in Osaka.
Boulter started aggressively, breaking immediately to lead 2-0, but Noskova's quality briefly surfaced as the Czech reeled off four straight games. The Brit refused to fold, breaking back to level at 4-4 and saving a set point at 4-5 down. Boulter broke again for 6-5 and had the chance to serve out the set, but double-faulted twice to send it to a tiebreak. There, she dominated from start to finish, taking it 7-3 with a roar of relief.
The second set told the story of Noskova's grueling recent schedule. Fresh off reaching the China Open final and the Wuhan round of 16, the 17th-ranked player broke early but quickly faded. Boulter leveled at 3-3 and never faced another break point, closing out her first win over a top-20 opponent since defeating Paula Badosa at Wimbledon in July. Both sets could go either way, but ultimately Noskova's fatigue was visible in the later stages of that match which was her 10th encounter played in range of just 17 days. Boulter's victory sets up an interesting second-round meeting with Sorana Cirstea. The experienced Romanian came back from a set down to defeat the home representative Moyuka Uchijima by 2-6 6-4 6-2.
Osaka cruises past
Top seed Naomi Osaka delivered exactly what the home crowd hoped for, dispatching wild card Wakana Sonobe 6-0, 6-4 in 77 minutes. The four-time Grand Slam champion, who reached the semifinals at the US Open, showed no mercy in the opening set, breaking three times to race through it in just 29 minutes with just two points lost on serve. Sonobe, ranked 267th in the world, put up more resistance in the second set , achieving one break of Osaka's serve in 4th game. The former world number one regained the control in following game to control the rest of this match in comfortable manner, firing 8 aces and facing just 4 pressure points in total. Osaka advances to face defending champion Suzan Lamens. The Dutch gave no chances to Emiliana Arango in the opening match to begin her title defense, winning by 6-1 6-2. The Colombian still fails to thrive outside Mexico where she made twice into finals of WTA 500 events in Merida and Guadalajara. Apart from those events, Arango won just 1 out of 9 main draw matches on hard courts this year.
Kessler crushes Kenin
The all-American clash between Mccartney Kessler and Sofia Kenin was expected to be one of the most interesting clashes of first round in WTA 500 Ningbo Open. The match was nowhere near competitive one though, as Kessler announced her arrival in Ningbo with a 6-1, 6-0 demolition of Sofia Kenin that lasted just 53 minutes. The scoreline was affected by clutch performance of Kessler in crucial moments, who converted all of 5 breakpoints created and defended all 3 breakpoints faced on serve. The younger American raced through the first set in 25 minutes, then bageled Kenin in the second, winning 11 consecutive games. Kessler's dominant performance sends an early message in the WTA 500 event, where she'll look to build on recent solid run of form this year despite a first-round loss in Wuhan. Kenin's start of the season was somewhat promising, especially with her run to final in Charleston in April, but her recent form marks with just 5 wins in last 15 matches which dismisses hopes of comeback to the form which gave her the victory in Australian Open 2020.
Bencic and Shnaider win in Ningbo
Two seeded players came into action in the opening day of WTA 500 Ningbo Open, both with a positive outcome. Sixth seed Belinda Bencic opened her Ningbo campaign with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Magda Linette, needing just under 90 minutes to advance. The Swiss player showed the consistency that saw her push both Iga Swiatek and eventual champion Coco Gauff in recent weeks in Wuhan and Beijing, even if both matches ended in defeats. Bencic's superior baseline game proved too much for Linette, who arrived in China on a five-match losing streak. The Pole, ranked 56th, reached the Nottingham semifinals earlier in 2025 but has struggled badly since, losing her 6th match in a row today. Against Bencic's rock-solid backhand and court coverage, Linette found no answers.
Seventh seed Diana Shnaider finally solved the puzzle of Wang Xiyu, defeating the Chinese left-hander in straight sets to advance. The Russian had lost both previous meetings to Wang without winning a set. Shnaider came into Ningbo off after three consecutive defeats, which was a disappointment after her victorious run in WTA 500 Monterrey in August. Shnaider came back from being down in the scoreline in both sets. She got broken twice after the start and made a turnover from 0-3 down to take the opening set by 7-5. She was trailing in second set by 1-3 with a single break, but won 5 games in a row to clinch the second set as well, which was interrupted by rain conditions for a while. The world number 19 was able to readjust her gameplan to neutralize Wang's heavy topspin and take control in baseline exchanges which helped her to take victory in that difficult encounter.