Vavrinec and Bastl through in Tokyo

Miroslava Vavrinec has followed George Bastl into the second round of the Tokyo tennis tournament winning her opening women's singles match against Israel's Anna Smashnova in straight sets.

Vavrinec made a surprisingly good start against the tournament’s eighth seed winning the first set 6-1. The second set was a much closer affair, ending in a tie-break which Vavrinec won 7-4.

The Slovakian-born Swiss player will now hope that lightning can strike twice when she takes on Hungary’s Rita Kuti Kis in the second round. Vavrinec enjoyed a straight sets win over the Hungarian just last week at Tokyo’s smaller women-only tournament.

Bastl made his way into the second round on Monday with a three sets win over Russia’s Andrei Stoliarov.

The Swiss men’s number three narrowly lost the first set 5-7, but then dropped just one game in the next two sets to win 5-7, 6-1, 6-0. It was the second time in two months that the two men had played each other, following Bastl’s September win over the Russian in Taschkent.

Bastl is likely to face a tougher challenge in the second round when he comes up against Morocco’s Hicham Arazi, seeded eighth at the Tokyo tournament. It will be the first time the two players have met on the tour.

swissinfo with agencies