​Nao Hibino made the surprise of the day at the “WTA 250” tournament in Nanchang, the athlete from Japan defeated the main favorite of the competition from China Beatrice Haddad Maya in the opening round.

Beatrice Haddad Maia defeated by Nao Hibino at the WTA in Nanchang

Hibino took two hours and four minutes to get past the Brazilian, 7-6(2), 6-3.

Beatrice (WTA No. 21) led 4-1 in the first set and missed two break points at 4-3 before losing in the tie-break. Haddad Maia also started the second set better (with a break), but then lost her serve twice.

Nao hit 4 aces (despite being only 1.63m) and did a great job of returning.

In the 1/8 finals, Nippon will meet with Australian Kimberly Birrell (102 WTA).

Also on Tuesday, Anna Blinkova (52 WTA, favorite 6) was beaten by the Chinese Xiaodi Yu (233 WTA), score 6-1, 6-1. The game lasted only 55 minutes.

Jiangxi Open takes place from October 16 to 22 in Nanchang (China) and is played on hard. The tournament is part of the WTA 250 category, has a total prize pool of $259,303, and is championed by Rebecca Peterson (2019).