Yui Chikaraishi held serve to start her first round qualifying match against Monique Barry in Sydney this afternoon, but the New Zealander upped the tempo to win the next five games. The next two games went with serve before Chikaraishi got one of the breaks back, but Barry broke again to end the set after 29 minutes.
There hadn’t been a deuce in that first set, and there wasn’t one in the second set either. This set, though, had only one break of serve, and that went in favour of Chikaraishi in the fifth game. She went on to serve out the set after 32 minutes.
Deuces finally appeared in the third set, Chikaraishi having to save two break points in the fourth game before holding serve before Barry broke herself with a double fault. She got that break straight back, but lost her next game as well. Chikaraishi then held comfortably, leaving Barry serving to stay in the match. She was able to fend off the first two match points from 15-40, but couldn’t stop Chikaraishi converting the third, the Japanese player winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 after an hour and 31 minutes.