Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula Makes winning Start in Tokyo 

Top seed Iga Swiatek survived a scare from qualifier Mai Hontama in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open, coming from a double break down in the first set and a break down in the second to advance 6-4, 7-5 in 2 hours and 2 minutes.

The Polish trailed the home favorite 4-1 at the start of the match, and also had to hold off a late fightback by Hontama, who pegged the Pole back from 5-1 to 5-5 in the second set. Making her debut appearance in Japan, the World No.2 advanced to her 13th quarterfinal of 2023 so far. She has only failed to reach that stage twice this season — at the Australian Open and US Open, at both of which she lost in the fourth round.

Swiatek will next face No.8 seed Veronika Kudermetova, who defeated Kayla Day 6-3, 6-3 in 1 hour and 26 minutes to reach her ninth quarterfinal of the year so far, and first since Berlin in June.

Elsewhere, No.2 seed Jessica Pegula got her Toray Pan Pacific Open campaign off to a quick start with a comprehensive win over Cristina Bucsa.

The 29-year-old American in her first match since a fourth-round showing at the US Open, eased past 79th-ranked Cristina Bucsa 6-1, 6-2 in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open on Wednesday.

Following her first-round bye, World No.4 Pegula of the United States needed just 62 minutes to defeat Spain’s Bucsa and become the first player to book a quarterfinal spot at the WTA 500 event in Tokyo.

“I thought I played very well,” Pegula said on court, after her win. “The courts play pretty fast here, so I was just trying to focus on my serve and my return, and I thought I did that really well, and was able to play a very clean match today.”

Pegula notched her 45th match-win of the season with the victory. She has the third-most match-wins at tour-level this year, behind only Iga Swiatek (56) and Aryna Sabalenka (50).

Pegula will next face either No.6 seed Daria Kasatkina or qualifier Despina Papamichail in the quarterfinals. Pegula defeated Kasatkina in their only previous meeting, on the clay courts of Rome in 2021. Pegula has never played Papamichail.