Ajla Tomljanovic kicked off her bid for a title repeat at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open in the best possible way, but refused to be drawn about her chances of lifting the trophy on Sunday.
"That's too far ahead, The field is crazy strong and it's nice to see at the last week of the season that the girls are here and wanting to play,” the Australian said after beating Japan's Momoko Kobori 7-5, 6-2 in the round of 32.
"It's great for the tournament as well... I'm just really happy to finish my year on at an event that I love to play so much at ... It has been a long year.”
The WTA 250 tournament at the Victoria Park Tennis Centre began with China’s Wang Yafan beating Australia's Maddison Inglis 6-4, 6/7 (6/8), 6/3 on Centre Court.
Tomljanovic then stepped up and, after a tight first set, began to pull away in the second to complete the win in one hour, 33 minutes.
Hong Kong's Cody Wong Hong-yi fell at the first hurdle, losing in straight sets to Viktoria Morvayova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-0.
Spain's Cristina Bucsa beat China’s Ma Yexin 6-1, 6-2.
And in a scene probably rarely seen here, a long queue formed for a doubles match on Court One, featuring Alexandra Eala of the Philippines.
Filipino fans came in droves to see their hero, but Eala and Taiwanese Cha Hao-ching, who were teaming up for the first time, were beaten 6-3, 1-6, 10-7 by Russian Kamilla Rakhimova and Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
