Qualifiers Tomic, Nishioka win titles

Two qualifiers won tournaments in China over the weekend, the fifth and sixth to do so in 2018 on the ATP Tour.

• Yoshihito Nishioka defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-5 2-6 6-4 to lift the Shenzhen Open trophy, his first ATP tournament win.  He moves up 76 places back into the top 100

• Bernard Tomic, in the Chengdu Open, was contesting his first ATP final since Acapulco in February 2016.  The former top twenty player faced four match points against top seed Fabio Fognini

Fognini was chasing his fourth title for the year, which would have been a record for Italy.  Tomic saved all match points and proceeded to win his fourth ATP trophy, the first since Bogotá in July 2015, 6-1 3-6 7-6(7)

The win enabled a rise in the rankings of 47 spots to 76, and back to automatic entry to the majors.

WTA Beijing 

More first round results 

• Qualifier Ons Jabeur defeated Simona Halep (1) 6-1 (retired).  The back injury which forced Halep out of this match began to affect her in the first up loss to Cibulková last week In Wuhan, so China has been a sad journey for the world number one in 2018.  It must be troubling as Halep looks toward the remaining tournaments and the season ending WTA Finals.
• Anastasija Sevastova defeated Alizé Cornet 6-4 6-2
• Madison Keys (17) defeated lucky loser Bernarda Pera 6-3 6-4
• Sloane Stephens (9) battled for almost three hours to defeat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-7(8) 6-4 6-4
• Wildcard Saisai Zheng defeated qualifier Dayana Yastremska 6-4 6-3
• Dominika Cibulková defeated wildcard Yingying Duan 6-3 6-2
• Angie Kerber (3) defeated Kiki Mladenovic 6-2 6-2
• Tímea Babos defeated Su-Wei Hsieh 6-2 6-2
• Lesia Tsurenko defeated qualifier Andrea Petkovic 6-2 7-6(2)
• Qualifier Polona Hercog defeated CoCo Vandeweghe 6-2 6-1
• Defending champion Caroline Garcia (4) defeated wildcard Yafan Wang 7-6(10) 6-7(4) 6-3
• Kirsten Flipkens defeated qualifier Katie Boulter 4-6 6-2 7-5
• Kiki Bertens (11) defeated lucky loser Sorana Cirstea 6-2 6-0
• Laura Siegemund defeated Daria Kasatkina (13) 6-3 4-2 (retired).  It was a bout of gastro that befell the Russian.