Former World No.1 Naomi Osaka rolled to a 6-3, 6-1 win over No.9 seed Ons Jabeur in Wednesday's first round of the National Bank Open presented by Rogers. 

Toronto: Scores | Draws | Order of Play 

The win, which lasted just 1 hour and 12 minutes, is Osaka's fifth over a Top 20 player this year in her return from maternity leave -- and her third on hard courts, the surface on which she's captured her four Grand Slam titles.

"Everyone knows I really love hard courts. I wasn't thinking too much. It was very instinctual," Osaka said post-match. "Honestly, when I play the best players, like Ons, I tend to play better.

"I'm feeling quite confident in myself as a person and as a player, and I think that showed a little."

Osaka last won a match in Canada in 2019, when she reached the quarterfinals -- but she hit 14 winners to 13 unforced errors in a tidy performance against Jabeur, who had 27 miscues in her first match action since Wimbledon. (The Tunisian withdrew from last week's Mubadala Citi DC Open with a shoulder problem.)

More notable numbers from Osaka's win included:

0: Despite only land 46% of her first serves, Osaka did not face a break point in victory. 

2: Osaka is now 2-0 against Jabeur all time. She also beat her on hard courts at the 2022 Australian Open.

4: Jabeur was broken four times, and only landed 36% of her first serves. 

8: Osaka has now won eight hard-court matches this year -- nearly 50% of her 17 overall match wins.

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Osaka advances to a seventh career meeting with Elise Mertens, against whom she's 1-1 this year. The Belgian won in Indian Wells, while Osaka won her first grass-court match in five years against Mertens in 's-Hertogenbosch.

Other notable matches on Wednesday in Toronto included:

  • A sixth straight victory for D.C. champion Paula Badosa, who eased to a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Denmark's Clara Tauson. The former World No.2 will be the first opponent for No.4 seed Jelena Ostapenko.
  • A 3-hour, 19-minute marathon for No.13 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia, who failed to convert match point at 5-4 in the third set before eventually beating D.C. finalist Marie Bouzkova in a third-set tiebreak, 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(4).
  • An equally thrilling three-set win for Olympic doubles silver medalist Diana Shnaider, who was down a break three times in the final set before beating Great Britain's Harriet Dart 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(2).