SHENZHEN: Top-ranked Ashleigh Barty of Australia rebounded from a set down to win her debut match 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 over Belinda Bencic of Switzerland at the WTA Finals on Sunday.
Barty鈥檚 victory is her 53rd of the season, second most this season after Kiki Bertens with 54.
The 5-foot-5 Barty is a surprisingly potent server and ended her first career encounter against Bencic, also playing in her first year-end final, with her 10th ace of the match.
Earlier, Naomi Osaka extended her winning streak to 11 matches after defeating Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-4 in the first of three round-robin matches on the day.
Osaka, the Australian Open champion, arrived in Shenzen having won the last two tournaments she played 鈥� in Osaka, Japan, and Beijing.
鈥淕iven that I do feel I鈥檓 a big-match player, there are some times when I play higher-ranked people and I don鈥檛 do that great,鈥� said Osaka. 鈥淪o I feel like this tournament is a big challenge for me. I think I鈥檓 not even really thinking of this tournament as the Finals, I鈥檓 just trying to continue on from where Beijing left off.鈥�

The two-time Grand Slam champion failed to take advantage of two match points when serving at 5-2 in the third, but nailed down the victory on a third match point when serving in the 10th game.
Kvitova surrendered the encounter when she sailed a backhand crosscourt wide on the final point.
鈥淚 know how Naomi is playing, how confident she is from the past weeks when she played well in Asia,鈥� Kvitova said. 鈥淪o I did expect really tough match.
The only other time Osaka played Kvitova took place when the Japanese player captured this year鈥檚 Australian Open final but a score of 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-4.