French teen Dodin nabs first WTA title in Quebec City

MONTREAL-France's Oceane Dodin, ranked 132nd in the world, won her first WTA title on Sunday in her first final, defeating American Lauren Davis 6-4, 6-3 in Quebec City.

Dodin, 19, fired eight aces in the one-hour, 38-minute contest to cap a dream week. She had twice reached the second round of major tournaments in 2015, but until this week had never won a main-draw match outside of the Grand Slams.

She launched her week with an upset of fifth-seeded Briton Naomi Broady. Against Davis, also seeking a first WTA title, the big-hitting Frenchwoman belted 31 winners to 26 unforced errors and broke the American six times. With the victory, which makes her the first teenaged winner on the WTA tour this year, Dodin will break into the top 100 in the world rankings for the first time.

Davis, in her second WTA final after a runner-up finish to Yanina Wickmayer at Washington two months ago, said she will be heading to Europe to tackle a string of indoor tournaments with increased confidence. "I've gotten a lot of matches under my belt, and so I'm feeling a lot of confidence," she said. "Going into next season, I'm looking forward to playing even better."

Rio champ Puig back to winning ways in Tokyo

Olympic champion Monica Puig thrashed American Varvara Lepchenko 6-0, 6-3 at the Pan Pacific Open on Monday, her first victory since winning a stunning gold in Rio.

Puig beat Germany's Angelique Kerber in last month's Olympic final to nab Puerto Rico's first ever gold medal. "A win is a win for me," shrugged the world number 33 after her first-round victory in rainy Tokyo.

"I'm just trying to finish the season strong and play some good tennis," added Puig, who crashed out of the US Open in the first round. "The whole ride from the Olympics has been very crazy and very emotional so it feels good to settle down and play some good tennis again."

Elsewhere, wildcard Naomi Osaka overpowered fellow Japanese Misaki Doi 6-4, 6-4 to reach the second round. The 18-year-old, born to a Japanese mother and Haitian father and who models her game on Serena Williams, seemed almost embarrassed after needing just 85 minutes to complete an upset victory.

"It was a close match but to be honest I felt like all the pressure was on her," world number 66 Osaka told reporters. "I didn't feel any pressure at all so I wasn't nervous or anything."

Osaka, who can smack her serves at close to 200 kilometres per hour (124 miles per hour), will face either sixth seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia or Czech Lucie Safarova after taking care of Doi, Japan's top-ranked player at 34th in the world. "I have never actually won a match in the main draw at this tournament so this is a special win," said Osaka. Two further first-round matches were postponed because of typhoon rains over Tokyo

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