Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva (66) continues her victorious run through the qualifying rounds of WTA tennis tournaments. After Wuhan and Ningbo, the two-time bronze medalist of the 2026 Asian Games held in Japan won the qualifying event at the $1.2 million WTA 500 tournament in Tokyo. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

Yesterday, in the first round of qualifying, the 31-year-old Putintseva defeated 19-year-old Japanese player Haya Kinoshita (221) 7:5, 6:2. Today, in a match lasting 2 hours and 9 minutes, she overcame her compatriot, 21-year-old world No. 589 Sayaka Ishii, with a hard-fought 4:6, 6:2, 6:3 victory.

In the Japanese capital, Putintseva will be joined by Elena Rybakina, who is set to play the final in Ningbo today, and Anna Danilina. The world No. 1 will start the Toray Pan Pacific Open 2026 from the second round. Rybakina's opponent will be one of the qualifiers (possibly Putintseva herself) or Maria Sakkari (31) of Greece.

Anna Danilina (7) and Jiang Xinyu (26) are seeded second in the doubles draw. The draw was not kind to the Kazakh-Chinese tandem. They will face multiple Grand Slam champions Sara Errani (15) and Jasmine Paolini (29) of Italy right at the start.

Last year, Danilina, partnering with Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia, reached the Tokyo final. They lost only to the Hungarian-Brazilian duo of Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani 1:6, 4:6.

The Toray Pan Pacific Open, a women's tennis tournament held on hard courts in Tokyo as part of the WTA 500 series, dates back to 1973. Until 2008, the tournament was held indoors. It then moved outdoors to the Ariake Tennis Forest Park. The main arena, Ariake Coliseum, features a retractable roof.

Switzerland's Martina Hingis won the tournament five times, and American Lindsay Davenport four times. Over the years, the Tokyo trophy has been claimed by legends such as Billie Jean King, Steffi Graf, Gabriela Sabatini, Martina Navratilova, Maria Sharapova, Dinara Safina, Caroline Wozniacki, and other stars.

The current champion is Belinda Bencic (14). In last year's final, the Swiss player defeated Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic 6:2, 6:3.