Kazakhstan's Anna Danilina got off to a winning start at the China Open in Beijing, teaming with American Desirae Krawczyk to beat Japan's Shuko Aoyama and Liang En-shuo of Chinese Taipei 6-3, 6-3, infohub.kz reports.
Three of the four players in the match had just returned from the Asian Games. Liang came home with doubles gold, Aoyama took mixed doubles silver, and Danilina claimed bronze alongside Yulia Putintseva. The Kazakh pair had lost in the semifinals to none other than Liang and Hsieh Su-wei.
In the first set in Beijing, Danilina and Krawczyk broke their opponents in just the second game. The pair hit back with a break of their own in the seventh game but failed to back it up. Danilina and Krawczyk broke again and took the set 6-3. The second set opened with an exchange of breaks, but the finish once more belonged to Danilina and her partner, 6-3.
The match lasted 1 hour 13 minutes, and the winners also took the points tally 59-42. Danilina thus avenged her Asian Games defeat to Liang.
Danilina and Krawczyk will face Erin Routliffe and Aldila Sutjiadi for a place in the quarterfinals. In the first round, the New Zealand-Indonesia duo beat Estonia's Ingrid Neel and Mexico's Giuliana Olmos 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).
Earlier in Beijing, Kazakhstan's top players Alexander Bublik and Elena Rybakina packed away their rackets. The world No. 1 also said she will miss Wuhan through injury, where she reached the quarterfinals last year.
The China Open is being held for the 25th time on the men's side (ATP 500) and the 27th time on the women's side (WTA 1000) this year. The total prize pool is $9.4 million.
Over the years, the prestigious hard-court tournament has been won by Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Marat Safin, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Serena Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Caroline Wozniacki, Iga Swiatek and other stars.
The 2025 Beijing champions, Italy's Jannik Sinner and American Amanda Anisimova, are not playing this year.