Linette ends losing streak: beats Claire Liu in Osaka

Magda Linette won her first match on the main WTA tour since August 2026. On Tuesday 20 October, she beat American Claire Liu 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the Kinoshita Group Japan Open in Osaka. The match lasted one hour and 56 minutes.

A poor second half of the season

After reaching the semi-final of the June tournament in Den Bosch, the Pole won only one match, in Toronto at the beginning of August against Canadian Carol Zhao. She then lost a series of matches. Linette is currently ranked 77th in the WTA rankings. Liu, ranked 95th, reached the main draw through qualifying.

How the match went

The first set was even. Linette broke her opponent's serve in the fourth game and led 4-1, but Liu came back into the match. In the eighth game she saved three set points, and the Pole failed to serve out the set at 5-4. After the change of ends, Linette broke again and closed out the set on her sixth opportunity.

In the second set, the Pole quickly took the lead after a break. At 3-0, Liu managed to save her own service game, but Linette then controlled the match.

According to a report by Sportowe Fakty, the Pole played one of her best matches this season. She hit 33 winners with 14 unforced errors, made three breaks and lost her serve only once. Over the whole match, she won 76 of the 139 points played.

What next

Linette has advanced to the last 16 of the WTA 250 tournament. Her opponent will be either second seed Peyton Stearns of the United States or Czech player Katerina Siniakova, currently the world's top doubles player. The result of their match was not known at the time the source was published.

The Osaka tournament runs until Sunday 25 October. The winner will receive 250 WTA ranking points and a cheque for $37.3k. The total prize money for the whole tournament is $283.3k.