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Osaka fired 16 aces and broke her Greek
opponent four times in the two hour, seven minutes encounter,
but struggled in the second set tiebreak when Sakkari won five
points in a row before squaring the match on an unforced error
from the Japanese.
The pair traded breaks in the opening stages of the final set
before former world number one Osaka clinched victory, despite
double faulting on her first match point.
"I knew going into it that it was going to be a really hard
match," world number four Osaka said. "I think in the second set
I was just complaining a lot in the tiebreak. I was just trying
to calm down and stay positive."
Former U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens, 24th in the WTA
rankings, fell at the first hurdle to Liudmila Samsonova, who is
ranked more than 100 places below her. The 129th ranked Russian
won 6-4 2-6 6-3.
Samsonova next faces former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova who
overcame a slow start and reeled off 12 of the last 13 games to
down another Russian in Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 2-6 6-1 6-0.
Wildcard Maria Sharapova, playing her first match since losing
in the first round of last year's U.S. Open, was beaten 3-6 6-1
7-6(3) by Jennifer Brady.
The American qualifier will take on world number one Ash Barty
in the second round.
Eighth seed Madison Keys advanced with a 6-3 6-2 win over the
Czech Republic's Marie Bouzkova.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair and Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru;
Editing by Peter Rutherford and Christian Radnedge)
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