British ace Lily Miyazaki reaches the second round of the US Open by beating Russia’s Margarita Betova as the 27-year-old finally wins her first main draw match in a Grand Slam
- Lily Miyazaki is through to the second round of the US Open after Monday’s win
- The 27-year-old beat Russia’s Margarita Betova in straight sets in America
- Miyazaki benefitted after earning herself one of the kindest draws available
Britain’s Lily Miyazaki reached the second round of the US Open on Monday night, and would not need her maths degree to calculate that she has more than doubled her prize money for the whole season to date.
The GB number seven, who had come through three qualifying matches, has guaranteed herself more than £98,000 by winning her first main draw match in a Grand Slam at the age of 27.
She overcame Russia’s Margarita Betova 6-3 6-3, and will now face the reigning Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, showing the way for the six British singles players who will play on day two.
The University of Oaklahoma graduate, who also has a Masters in Information Technology, is so far following the path forged two years ago by Emma Raducanu, who beat Bencic en route to the title.
‘Coming in here I didn’t expect to be at this stage,’ admitted Miyazaki. ‘ Playing qualifying definitely helped me because I felt really confident with the conditions. I was nervous today and wasn’t playing great, I’m a bit lost for words.’
Britain’s Lily Miyazaki reached the second round of the US Open on Monday night
Miyazaki earned herself what was one of the kindest draws available, facing an opponent coming back from a career break after giving birth.
Under her maiden name of Gasparayan, Betova once got as high as number 41 but having only played at Wimbledon this year she languishes below 1000 in the rankings, and it showed.
Nonetheless world number 199 Miyazaki put her compact groundstroking game to good use on remote outside Court Eight, and had made her own luck by successfully tackling last week’s preliminaries.
World number four Holger Rune was the biggest casualty early on the first day. Displeased by being put on humble Court Five his poor post-Wimbledon form continued as he went down 6-3 4-6 6-3 6-2 to Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena.
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