China Open: Rakhimova loses to Birrell in qualies, beats her in first round as lucky loser

Russian Kamilla Rakhimova and Australian Kimberly Birrell met twice in the span of three days, Birrell won their clash in the final round of qualifying for the WTA China Open in a third set tiebreak.

On Thursday, Russian lucky loser Rakhimova got into the main draw as a lucky loser after Emma Raducanu pulled out and defeated Birrell 6-2, 6-4 to reach the second round at the National Tennis Center in Beijing on Thursday.

Rakhimova, ranked No 71, will play No 5 seed Qinwen Zheng next.

Beijing WTA 1000, other first-round matches (National Tennis Center, hard, USD 8,955,610):

• Jana Fett (LL) beat Meiling Wang (WC): 6-3, 6-4
• Camila Osorio beat Ajla Tomljanovic: 1-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Moyuka Uchijima beat Han Shi (WC): 6-3, 6-4
• Cristina Bucsa beat Xinxin Yao (WC): 6-3, 6-2
• Rebecca Sramkova (Q) beat Anhelina Kalinina: 6-4, 6-0
• Hailey Baptiste (Q) beat Varvara Gracheva: 6-0, 6-3
• Alycia Parks (Q) beat Qiang Wang: 1-6, 6-4, 6-2
• Peyton Stearns beat Jessica Bouzas Maneiro: 6-2, 6-4
• Elina Avanesyan beat Emina Bektas (LL): 6-2, 7-5
• Diane Parry beat En-Shuo Liang (Q): 4-6, 6-0, 6-0
• Shuai Zhang (WC) beat McCartney Kessler: 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1)
• Katie Volynets beat Dalma Galfi (Q): 7-5, 6-1
• Clara Burel beat Tamara Korpatsch (LL): 6-3, 5-7, 6-3
• Naomi Osaka beat Lucia Bronzetti: 6-3, 6-2
• Taylor Townsend beat Martina Trevisan: 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
• Yuliia Starodubtseva (Q) beat Laura Siegemund: 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Xinyu Wang beat Mai Hontama (LL): 6-1, 6-3
• Viktoriya Tomova beat Lesia Tsurenko: 6-3, 6-3
• Sofia Kenin beat Ana Bogdan: 7-5, 6-2
• Greet Minnen beat Erika Andreeva: 7-5, 6-2
• Yafan Wang vs. Ashlyn Krueger
• Anna Blinkova vs. Karolina Muchova
• Zarina Diyas vs. Mananchaya Sawangkaew
• Elena-Gabriela Ruse vs. Sijia Wei
• YeXin Ma vs. Irina-Camelia Begu
• Anna Bondar vs. Jaqueline Cristian
• Viktorija Golubic vs. Xiyu Wang
• Yufei Ren vs. Nadia Podoroska
• Arina Rodionova vs. Elisabetta Cocciaretto
• Xinyu Gao vs. Sara Sorribes Tormo
• Harriet Dart vs. Clara Tauson