Caroline Garcia advanced to the second round of the year's first Grand Slam tournament - the Australian Open, after beating former two-time champion Naomi Osaka 6-4, 7-6 (2) in nearly an hour and a half of play.
16th in the main draw, the Frenchwoman struck first in the opening set, making a break of serve in the fifth game, which turned out to be key to the final outcome of the set. There were no breaks in the second and the two settled the score in a tiebreak in which Garcia took five unanswered points at 2-2 to claim victory. The French tennis player avenged her loss to the Japanese three years ago in Melbourne - then her defeat came in the second round.
Garcia served magnificently in the match, losing just four first serve points in the entire match and not giving up a single break point to Osaka. The Frenchwoman made one unforced error less than her rival and as many as 14 winners more. In contention for a place in the third round, she will face Poland's Magdalena Frech, who upset the hosts' wild card Daria Saville.
Ons Jabeur and Beatriz Haddad-Maia, respectively, also started with with in Melbourne, but No. 15 Veronika Kudermetova from Russia is out of the competition. /BGNES
