British number five Harriet Dart progresses to the second round of the Japan Women's Open with a shock three-set win over Czech fourth seed Linda Fruhvirtova.

British number five Harriet Dart progressed to the second round of the Japan Women's Open with a shock three-set win over Czech fourth seed Linda Fruhvirtova.

The 27-year-old - who is currently ranked 132nd in the world - prevailed 7-5 5-7 6-2 over the course of two days, with the match being suspended on Monday as night fell.

Dart won just two of the opening seven games of the match as Fruhvirtova broke the Briton twice, but Dart broke back when the fourth seed was serving for the match at 5-3.

A resurgent Dart proceeded to win the next three games to take the first set, but once again, Fruhvirtova exploded out of the blocks in the second set to establish a 3-0 lead.

Dart nevertheless managed to peg Fruhvirtova back to 4-4, but she lost her serve while trying to stay in the set, as the Czech forced a deciding third before play resumed on Tuesday.

The evening's rest did Dart the world of good, as the Briton quickly earned the double break for a 4-0 lead and missed two set points on the Fruhvirtova serve, but she made no mistake in the eighth game with a hold to love to progress to round two.

Dart - who has never reached a top-level singles final on the WTA Tour - will now pit her wits against Russia's Anna Kalinskaya for a place in the quarter-finals. body check tags ::

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