Japan rested Ai Sugiyama from her singles match but was still too powerful for New Zealand as it cruised to a 3-0 win at the Fed Cup Asia-Oceania zone Group One tournament at Tokyo’s Ariake Colosseum on Tuesday.
Third seed China, which will challenge top seed Japan on Wednesday in the five-team Pool A round robin, posted three easy wins over Hong Kong.
Indonesia’s Angelique Widjaja and Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn played two matches each to give the respective second and fourth seeds 3-0 wins, and the two teams will face each other Wednesday in the six-team Pool B.
“I went out to the court thinking ‘I really want to win this match today,’ because I lost my singles yesterday,” said Japan’s No. 2 Shinobu Asagoe, who trounced Leanne Baker 6-0, 6-0 in the second singles.
Saori Obata put Japan one up, beating Eden Marama 6-1, 6-4 in the opener, and then teamed up with Sugiyama to beat Ilke Gers and Marama 6-0, 6-1.
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