Wednesday, 13 September 2017: In a luckless return to the WTA tennis since the French Open Samantha Stosur suffered a three-set defeat at the Japan Open on Wednesday.

Samantha Stosur of Australia plays a forehand during a ladies’ singles match at the 2017 French Open. June 4, 2017

The 2011 US Open champion lost 3-6 7-5 6-1 to Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain in the first round of the tournament.
Fifth seeded Stosur has been sidelined in the past few months due to a stress fracture suffered playing Jelena Ostapenko.
In the meantime, Croatian Jana Fett beat top-seeded Kristina Mladenovic 6-4 6-3 to advance in to round two.
Mladenovic rallied briefly winning three games in the second set before being out served by the Croat for a comfortable victory.
Among the others moving in to the second round Defending champion Christina McHale of the United States was notable.
In second round action, third seed Belgian Elise Mertens beat Poland’s Magda Linette 6-1 7-5.