Monterrey (Mexico), Apr 4 (IANS): Slovakia's second seed Magdalena Rybarikova took an hour and a half to defeat Japan's Risa Ozaki 6-4, 6-3 and move into the second round of the Monterrey Open.
Playing on the central court on Monday, world number 17 Rybarikova's serve was the key difference between the two players and helped her clinch the first set, reports Efe.
Rybarikova broke Ozaki, ranked number 267 in the world, in the fifth game of the second set, but the Japanese fought back to draw level 3-3.
The Slovak outplayed Ozaki in the next three games to move onto the second round, where she will play the winner of the tennis match between Greece's Valentini Grammatikopoulou and Croatia's Jana Fett.
On Tuesday, top seed Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain will play Mexico's Renata Zarazua, and Olympic champion Monica Puig of Puerto Rico will face the American Nicole Gibbs.