A place in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Open will be at stake on Wednesday when top-seeded Qinwen Zheng takes on Moyuka Uchijima.
To get to this stage, Uchijima won a thriller versus Mika Stojsavljevic 6-4 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (8-6), while Zheng is coming off losing the final of the Wuhan Open to Aryna Sabalenka 3-5 7-5 3-6.
Match preview
Zheng is getting closer and closer to lifting another trophy, but not close enough, as she suffered a heartbreaking three-set defeat in front of the home fans at the Wuhan Open.
Since winning the Olympic gold medal in women's singles in Paris, the 22-year-old has made the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final in her next subsequent tournaments, and she will hope it goes a step further at this event.
Zheng is becoming accustomed to making deep runs on the hard court and has not been knocked out from a round of 16 clash on this surface since Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat her in two sets at the Cincinnati Open earlier this year (5-7 1-6).
When her big serve is on, she is one of the most powerful women on tour, hitting 335 aces in 53 matches played this year and winning 76.7% of her service games.
With numbers like that, it is unsurprising to know that the 2024 US Open quarter-finalist boasts a first-serve winning percentage of 75.9%.
Her strong two-handed backhand has played a big part in her converting 47.4% of her break points for the year, and lately, that has been working for her quite effectively.
Fans at Center Court experienced quite the match in the round of 32 as Moyuka Uchijima won a nail-biting, third-set tiebreaker to advance.
The 23-year-old hit eight double faults but managed to pull through by winning 63% of her second serves throughout the encounter.
She also survived conceding seven aces while hitting just one herself and was able to win half of her break-point opportunities (5/10).
This will be her first trip to the last 16 of a WTA singles event since May when she captured the ITF/Tennis Europe W100, defeating Leyre Romero Gormaz in the final (5-7 6-4 7-5).
Not since May of this year, at the ITF W100 in her native Japan, has she made it beyond the last 16 of a women's singles hard court tournament, winning that final versus Arina Rodionova in straight sets (6-3 6-3).
In just 15 matches this year, Uchijima has a first-serve percentage of 55% while winning only 52.4% of her service points in 2024.
Tournament so far
Moyuka Uchijima:
Round of 32: vs. Mika Sojsavljevic 6-4 6-7 (7-9) 7-6 (8-6)
We say: Zheng to win in two sets
As exciting as her previous match was at this tournament, Uchijima does not have the experience or overall game to trouble a player as well-rounded as Zheng.
body check tags ::
Previews by email
