TASHKENT: Emerging Japanese star Nao Hibino captured her first WTA career title on Saturday when she won the Tashkent Open.

Ranked 119th in the world and playing in the main draw of a WTA event for just the second time, the 20-year-old Hibino beat Croatian teenager Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-2 in Saturday’s final. Hibino did not drop a set in the entire tournament as she became just the 10th Japanese woman to win on the WTA tour.

“I’m so happy to win the first WTA title of my career here in Tashkent,” she said at the presentation. Vekic also finished runner-up at the Tashkent Open in 2012, when she was just 16. — Reuters