Magda Linette beat Victoria Azarenka from a set down for the second time this year to score her first-career win Saturday at the China Open.

The Polish No.2, who trained in China for six years, closed out Day 1 of main-draw play in Beijing with a 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 comeback against the 2012 Beijing champion and former World No.1, who was playing the event for the first time in 10 years. 

In a physical 2 hours and 11 minutes, both players recorded 23 winners, but it was Linette's sustained consistency that won out in the match against the No.14 seed. She racked up just 22 unforced errors to Azarenka's 35. She also broke Azarenka's serve six times.

Linette now boasts 20 career wins against Top 20 players, and the win was her first against such opposition since her last win over Azarenka -- in Miami in March.

Seven main-draw matches took the court Saturday in Beijing, with Linette's win being one of five to go three sets.

Marta Kostyuk and wild card Yuan Yue were also winners in come-from behind fashion, as they dropped the first set in eventual victories over Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Elise Mertens, respectively, while Varvara Gracheva and Petra Martic were also three-set winners. 

Yuan's 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 win over Mertens was her first-ever at WTA 1000 level; the 25-year-old from Yangzhou, ranked No.147 off her 2022 career-high of No.74, lost in the first round of the Miami Open last spring in her debut at this level.

Martic's 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(3) win over Sorana Cirstea was the longest of the day at 2 hours and 26 minutes, as the Croatian recorded her first win in the pair's head-to-head in nine years.